Netherlands: what it costs and how it is taxed

This article applies to the Netherlands.

What you pay per bike

We invoice you for the full amount, whatever you decide to contribute.

Three ways to offer it

Whichever you choose, we invoice you the same. The difference is how much of it you pass on.

1. You cover it fully. A straightforward benefit, and the cost is (partially) deductible for your business.

2. You share it. Set a fixed amount or a percentage you'll contribute, say €25 a month, and your employee covers the rest from gross salary.

3. You facilitate it. Your employee covers the full amount from gross salary. This costs you nothing and you still save on social contributions.

How gross salary exchange works

The monthly amount comes out of your employee's gross salary before tax. That lowers their taxable income, so they pay less income tax, and the bike ends up costing them around 40% less than the monthly price suggests. The exact figure depends on their tax bracket.

Our business calculator works it out for your own salary levels.

What you save, and giving it back

Because gross salary drops, you pay less in social contributions: roughly 15-20% of the amount exchanged. On a €23.90 Deluxe 7 that's about €3.58 a month per employee.

Most employers give that saving back as a contribution towards the bike. It costs you nothing you weren't already saving, and it makes the scheme cheaper for your employee.

Settle your contribution gross on the payslip, so it stays outside your WKR. Settling it net comes out of your free margin instead.

The bijtelling

Because your employees can also use the bike privately, the tax authorities treat it as a benefit. The bijtelling is 7% of the bike's consumer recommended price per year, added to taxable income and settled automatically through the payslip.

It's smaller than it sounds:

The calculation uses the bike's value rather than what you pay monthly, so it doesn't change with the subscription. Book values for each bike.

Your WKR budget stays free

The WKR is the tax-free budget you use for benefits like gift packages or a home-working allowance. In 2026 it's 1.92% of the first €400,000 of your salary bill, plus 1.18% above that.

A Swapfiets doesn't touch it. The bike stays ours throughout, which makes it a ter beschikking gestelde fiets rather than something provided to your employee. Because ownership never transfers, it isn't treated as wages in kind, and the bijtelling applies instead.

A traditional bike plan works the other way. Your employee buys and owns the bike, so the full purchase value counts as wages and comes out of your free margin, which fills up quickly. That's why purchase plans tend to run in rounds, with anyone joining later waiting for next year.

With a subscription there's no budget to run down, and someone joining in October gets a bike in October.

The mileage allowance

On days your employees ride the Swapfiets to work, you can't pay them a tax-free mileage allowance for those kilometres. But it doesn't disappear.

For days they travel by car or public transport, you can keep paying it untaxed as normal. So someone cycling two days a week and driving the other three keeps their allowance for those three days.

The rate is €0.25 per kilometre in 2026, raised retroactively from €0.23. It's tax room rather than an obligation, so whether you pay it depends on your employment contracts or collective agreement.