As a Dutch Freelancer: Which Receipts Do You Scan, Which Don't You? (Practical Decision Tree)

The question beginning freelancers (ZZP'ers) ask weekly: "Is this receipt business or private?" Most answers online fall into one of two extremes: "when in doubt, don't deduct" (overly conservative, costs hundreds of euros in tax each year) or "anything you can connect to your work counts" (overly optimistic, triggers a reassessment on audit).

This article is the middle path. Written from eight years of self-employed experience, without an accountant, in line with what the Belastingdienst reasonably accepts.

Three categories, not two

Most expenses are not black-and-white business or private. They fall into three categories:

  1. 100% business — expense exists only because you do the work
  2. Mixed — expense would exist even without the work, but is (partly) used for it
  3. 100% private — expense has no relation to your work

Okidoky supports this distinction directly: every transaction gets a label Business / Private / Mixed. For Mixed you can also split (e.g. 70% business, 30% private).

100% business — always upload

These are expenses that would literally not exist without your business:

  • Business software subscriptions (Adobe Creative Cloud if you're a designer, Okidoky itself, GitHub Pro, etc.)
  • Hardware specifically for work (monitor you only plug into your work laptop, microphone for podcasts, camera for photo assignments)
  • Vakliteratuur and courses directly related to your work
  • Kilometer claims for travel to clients (€0.23/km in 2026, or actual costs for a business car)
  • Business representation (coffee with a prospect, business lunch, entertainment — 80% deductible)
  • Office rent or desk-share in a coworking space
  • Accountant, legal or bookkeeper fees
  • Insurance: professional liability, business legal assistance
  • Work-acquisition platforms (Upwork Premium, Malt, 99designs-pro)

Scan = yes. Don't hesitate, always.

Mixed — scan and split

This is the grey area. Expenses you would have had as a private person, but which also serve your work:

  • Phone subscription and handset: if you also call clients/suppliers, part is business. Ratio: roughly 70% business, 30% private is common and defensible for many ZZP'ers.
  • Home internet subscription: partly business (e.g. 50%) if you work from home.
  • Home energy costs: if you have a workroom, allocate business proportionally to square metres. The exact calculation the Belastingdienst accepts is called the "werkkamer-regeling".
  • Car: use kilometer claim for business trips (€0.23/km), or put the car entirely on the business balance sheet (bijtelling for private use is then mandatory).
  • Clothing: clothing you'd also wear privately is not deductible. Work-specific clothing (safety shoes, branded uniform, tuxedo for a conductor) is.
  • Laptop: if you have one laptop for work and private, split (e.g. 70% business) or buy a second one fully for business. Fully business means no private things on it.
  • Books/education: if a professional book is also interesting as a hobby, it's debatable. The Belastingdienst usually accepts 100% business if it demonstrably supports your work.

Scan = yes. But add a percentage split when processing.

100% private — don't scan

These are expenses with no business justification, not even partially:

  • Groceries (except as a treat for employees, which as an employee-less ZZP you don't have)
  • Vacation, travel without business client visits
  • Hobby materials unrelated to your work
  • Dining out without a business companion
  • Gym subscription (even if it helps productivity — not deductible)
  • Medical costs, physiotherapy (falls under personal health contribution, not business expenses)
  • Childcare (falls under kinderopvangtoeslag, not business costs)

Scan = optional, but label them Private. That way they stay in your overview without appearing in your business tax return.

Edge cases that often go wrong

Three common mistakes:

1. The business laptop you sometimes use privately. If you watch Netflix or check personal email on it, 100% business is not defensible. Choose honestly for a split (e.g. 80% business).

2. Lunch with a fellow freelancer. Is that "business representation" (80% deductible)? Only if there's a business reason (possible collaboration, professional knowledge exchange). "We know each other from a party" is not a business reason.

3. The second monitor. If you only have work things on it: 100% business. If private content sometimes shows up there: split.

How Okidoky helps with this

Scan a receipt → Okidoky detects amount + date + store automatically (Tesseract.js, locally in your browser — photos don't go to our servers for OCR). You provide the label:

  • Business → goes into your ZZP deductions overview
  • Mixed + percentage → the correct proportion lands in your overview
  • Private → stays outside your business total

For the annual tax filing, export an overview per category as CSV. Your accountant (or you yourself if you do the simple return) has everything at hand.

The 7-year rule

Remember: every receipt you label business must be kept for 7 years (per the legal retention requirement for ZZP'ers). Thermal-paper receipts fade within 2-3 years, becoming invalid evidence during an audit. Scanning digitally on day 1 solves this.

How long to keep receipts? We have a separate guide on that.

Closing

The Belastingdienst is much more lenient on individual receipts than people think — audits focus more on patterns and annual totals. Those who are consistently reasonable (70% business on phone, not 100%; 50% on internet, not 100%) rarely run into problems. Those who over-claim are vulnerable, those who under-claim simply pay more tax than necessary.

The honest answer in doubt: label it mixed with a defensible percentage. Not 100% or 0%. That's the reality of most ZZP expenses.

Okidoky supports Business / Private / Mixed labels and split-percentages. Free to try.