Can I include travel and accommodation costs abroad as business expenses?
Suppose you are going abroad for an activity or assignment, then the amount you pay for flight tickets and hotel accommodation for your business visit are deductible to a certain limit. This means that you can enter them, but that we have to make a private correction for you at the end of the year. The cost category you may use is "travel and accommodation costs 80%". You enter 100% of the costs, and at the end of the year we make sure that 80% is deducted from your taxable profit. If you make a note of the costs you incur for an activity or assignment abroad (e.g. a congress), you will be fine.
What about the VAT on these expenses?
Keep the following two things in mind:
- There is no VAT on airplane tickets
- There is foreign VAT on your hotel stays, you are not allowed to deduct it.
Can I also carry out my regular activities abroad and then increase the travel and accommodation costs?
This is only allowed if you can prove that you had to be on location to perform these regular activities. So if you make video reports, it is likely that you will have to go to the location at some point. However, travel and accommodation costs because you do your administration on a beach abroad are not to be recorded as business costs.... :)