Tax and Customs Administration mileage registration rules for self-employed professionals in construction: complete guide

Anyone who works as a self-employed professional in the construction industry and spends a lot of time on the road knows how quickly the kilometers add up. A job on location, picking up materials, a quick stop at the wholesaler, back to the workshop. For the Tax Authorities, all that driving is no small detail: it determines whether you have to pay company car tax, how much VAT correction applies, and whether your records pass an audit.

Trip logging sounds simple, until you don't keep track of it for a few weeks. Then you start puzzling over calendars, receipts, and WhatsApp messages afterwards. That is exactly when errors occur. With a fixed working method, you avoid hassle and keep a grip on costs.

When do you need to register trips as a self-employed professional in the construction industry?

Mileage logging is particularly relevant if you have a company car and want to avoid taxable benefit by demonstrating that you drive a maximum of 500 kilometers per year privately. That 500 km limit is strict: if you exceed it, taxable benefit applies. If you cannot prove this with a conclusive mileage log, the Tax Authorities often assume in practice that you exceed the limit.

In the construction industry, there is an additional factor: trips often overlap. You drive from home to the job, stop at a supplier in between, and at the end of the day head to the next client to take measurements. Precisely because it feels “normal,” the administrative side of things quickly becomes sloppy.

A trip is any movement by car, so that includes that short drive from a project to the hardware store.

What the Tax and Customs Administration requires: vehicle data and trip data

The Tax and Customs Administration does not prescribe whether you do this on paper, in Excel, or via an app. However, the content must be complete, verifiable, and consistent.

First, you record the vehicle details in your records: make, model, license plate number, and the period during which you use the vehicle. Subsequently, you register every trip with the mandatory details.

The table below is a practical checklist that aligns with the requirements published by the Tax and Customs Administration for a mileage log.

Many freelancers also add a goal (client name, project code, pick up materials). This is not always mandatory, but it helps enormously with verification and for looking yourself up again.

Passenger car, delivery van and “exclusively for business use”

The rules differ mainly on the point: are you required to keep a logbook of journeys or not?

For a company car, the following applies: if you want to avoid tax addition, you must demonstrate with a complete mileage log that you drive a maximum of 500 km privately per year.

For a company delivery van , if you truly never drive for private purposes, you can submit a “Declaration of Exclusively Business Use of Delivery Van” . If granted, no taxable benefit applies and a mileage log is not mandatory. The condition is strict: “exclusively business” really means no private trips. If usage changes, you must report this.

If you already have doubts in advance about whether you will occasionally use the delivery van for private purposes (even if only occasionally), do not count on the declaration as a solution. In that case, you will quickly return to the 500 km rule and a complete logbook of trips.

Business, private, and the mixed drive on a workday

In the construction industry, it is very common to combine multiple destinations on a single trip. That is exactly what the Tax Authorities are vigilant about: you must be able to demonstrate which part is business-related and which part is private.

Take a simple situation: you are driving from home to a job, but you make a detour to pick something up for private use. In that case, the trip is not automatically classified as “business” or “private.” You must be able to designate the detour kilometers as private and record them separately. If you fail to do so, your mileage log will quickly become “inconclusive.”

It helps to make agreements with yourself: either you don't make a private stop along the way, or you note it down immediately, including the detour.

Ways to keep track of trips: paper, Excel, or app

The best method is the method you stick to on busy days. Anyone working in practice knows that “I’ll do it tonight” often means: next week, or never.

There are roughly four routes, each with its own pitfalls.

It is smart to determine in advance what is important to you. Consider:

• Automatically calculated kilometers
• Export to CSV or PDF
• Link to projects and work orders
• Capture corrections without “cutting and pasting afterwards”

Common mistakes that stand out during inspections

A trip log does not have to be beautiful. It does, however, need to be complete. During inspections, things often go wrong repeatedly: the same sloppiness recurs time and again.

It helps to subject your registration to a brief quality check from time to time. Pay particular attention to these points:

• Gaps in the series: days with work, but no trips, or vice versa.
• No start and end scores: just “35 km” is often too meager if you record odometer readings.
• Addresses too vague: “Amsterdam” or “customer” is not verifiable.
• No business/private marking: lumping everything together makes your 500 km claim vulnerable.
• Detours without explanationDeviating routes without explanation raise questions.

A weekly check takes little time and prevents repair work later on.

Retention obligation: 7 years and always readable

Trip logs are part of your tax records and, as a rule, you must retain them for 7 years . This also applies if you work digitally. “Digital” is fine, as long as you can still present it later and the file remains readable.

In practice this means:

• Ensure exports (for example, monthly) to a fixed archive, separate from just “in the app”.
• Work with backups and store them in a place where you have control.
• Take into account phone changes, broken devices, and accounts.

The Tax and Customs Administration accepts digital mileage logs if they are reliable and verifiable. A quality mark can help, but it is not the only route. It is about the content, the consistency, and your ability to produce the log.

Linking trips to projects: handy for construction and installation

For many self-employed construction workers, mileage tracking is not just a “tax.” It is also an expense that you want to be able to pass on or at least see reflected per project. Especially for small jobs, travel time and driving can make the difference between profit and loss.

Werkbriefje.app is made for construction and installation companies credentials for digital work orders want to record. Within that same workflow, you can also register mileage Per project: you enter the departure and arrival addresses, and the distance is automatically calculated via Google Maps. In the dashboard, you see kilometers alongside hours and materials, so that everything is in one place for invoice preparation.

This works particularly well if you impose one rule on yourself: every trip associated with a job actually ends up on that job. That way, you keep it coherent and usable for the project.

What are the benefits of a good mileage log?

The advantage is twofold: lower risk and often a lower tax burden.

With a company car, it is about the taxable benefit. If you can demonstrate that you drive a maximum of 500 km privately, you can avoid the taxable benefit. If you cannot, or if the mileage log is inconclusive, the Tax Authorities may still include the taxable benefit in your profit. This can have a substantial impact, as the taxable benefit is a fixed amount based on the list price.

On the VAT side, the correction for private use comes into play. Without proper substantiation, you often fall back on a flat-rate correction (2,7% of the list price is frequently cited, with exceptions). With sound records, you can base the calculation on actual private use, which can be advantageous for business drivers.

And then there is the daily reality: trips you do make but do not invoice or include in your project costs are simply margin leaking away.

A workable routine that you stick to on busy days

The difference between “I’m going to keep proper records this year” and a trip log that really holds up usually lies in routine, not in good intentions.

Choose one moment when you update (or have it recorded) and stick to it. A simple approach that many freelancers maintain:

1. Register trips immediately upon arrival at the location or when closing the work order.
2. Check every week for missing days, illogical distances, and missing addresses.
3. Create an export every month and archive it with your records.

That is boring, but it is exactly what you need if questions ever arise about your 500 private kilometers. And in the meantime, it gives you a better overview of your true costs per job.