Company E-Bike Scheme Netherlands Explained

E-bike rules & money · Updated 2026

Company E-Bike Scheme Netherlands Explained: How the Fiets van de Zaak Really Works in 2026

What is the company e-bike scheme, exactly?

Call it the fiets van de zaak, a leasefiets, a fietsplan or a company bike scheme. The idea is the same. Your employer puts a bike under you, and the tax office takes a small, fixed bite instead of a big, fuzzy one. The current national rules have run since 01/01/2020. Before that, the old fietsplan was only tax-free for bikes up to about €749, which ruled out most e-bikes. The 2020 rules dropped that price cap, and that is why e-bikes took over the scheme.

Which bikes count? More than you would think. A plain city bike, a 25 km/h e-bike, a cargo e-bike and a 45 km/h speed pedelec all fall under the same rule, so the tax trick works on the expensive stuff too. (For what a speed pedelec may and may not do on the road, see our guide to the e-bike speed limit in the Netherlands.)

The deal in one line: the bike belongs to your employer or the lease company, you may ride it as much as you like, and in return 7% of the bike’s consumer price is added to your taxable pay each year. No logbook, no kilometre administration, and you do not even have to commute on it. One catch: this is not a right. Your employer decides whether to offer a scheme, which provider to use and how much to chip in.

The Belastingdienst explains the employee side on its fietsplan page, Ondernemersplein covers the employer view, and business.gov.nl has the English-language version. Below is the version we wish someone had handed us: plain English, real numbers and the traps labelled.

• pre-2020The old fietsplan: tax-free only up to about €749 per bike. Fine for a city bike, useless for an e-bike.
• 01/01/2020The current rules start: 7% bijtelling, no price cap, unlimited private use, no kilometre administration.
• 01/01/2026Nil bijtelling for genuine shared and hub bikes that stay at your home no more than about 10% of the time, retroactive to 2020.
• May 2026The tax-free kilometre allowance goes from €0.23 to €0.25 per km for the whole of 2026, retroactive to 1 January, by policy decision ahead of the Belastingplan 2027.
• June 2026The Belastingdienst confirms a second company bike carries the same 7%, per bike.

The 7% bijtelling, in plain English

Every year, 7% of the bike’s recommended consumer price, including VAT, is counted as extra salary on your payslip. That addition is the bijtelling. It applies even if the bike is second-hand, because the recommended price is still the base. You pay normal income tax on it, spread over your pay periods, and that is the whole tax story on the bijtelling. What it costs you depends on your bracket. In 2026 the box 1 rates are 35.75% up to €38,883, 37.56% up to €78,426 and 49.50% above that.

That table is only the tax on the bijtelling. On a gross-salary lease you also pay the lease fee itself, and I price both together in the costs section.

Five details change the maths:

• An own contribution can shrink the bijtelling. If you pay your employer a contribution for private use, it comes off the bijtelling, but never by more than the bijtelling itself. Pay €14.58 a month or more on a €2,500 bike and the taxable bijtelling drops to nil. This is not the same as a gross lease deduction, which lowers your gross pay while the 7% still applies. Check how your payslip shows it.
• Extras ride inside the price. Accessories that come with the company bike, such as a carrier, a battery upgrade or a solid ART-approved e-bike lock, are not taxed separately. They add to the value the 7% is worked out on, so a €75 battery upgrade adds about €5 a year.
• Every bike carries its own 7%. A second company bike is fine, and there is no maximum number. A commuter e-bike plus a weekend cargo e-bike both sit in the scheme, each taxed on its own price.
• Shared and hub bikes can escape entirely. A genuine deelfiets or hub bike that you use only for commuting, and that stands at your home no more than about 10% of the time, carries a nil bijtelling. A personal leased e-bike that sleeps in your shed does not.
• Commuting is not a condition. The bijtelling applies whether you cycle to work five days a week or only at weekends, and private use is unlimited.

Dutch terms you will meet on your payslip

Four routes to a company e-bike

Employers mix and match, but almost every scheme you meet is one of these four constructions.

Route 1: the gross-salary lease (the classic fietsplan)

A lease company buys the bike, your employer signs, and the monthly fee (finance, maintenance, insurance) comes out of your gross salary. That money is never taxed, so every €100 of lease costs you about €50 to €64, depending on your bracket. The 7% bijtelling is then added on top, which is the small price you pay for that saving. This is the route behind the famous “good e-bike for fifty-odd euros a month”.

Route 2: the employer pays and absorbs the tax

Your employer can pay some or all of the lease. They can also pick up the tax by naming the bijtelling as eindheffingsloon inside the werkkostenregeling, so you pay no tax on it and the bike costs you nothing. The good news for small employers: the lease itself sits outside the WKR, and only the bijtelling uses free space. For a €2,500 bike that is €175 a year. On a €300,000 payroll the free space is €6,000, which is roughly 34 bikes before anything else eats into it. Run out of space and the excess is taxed at 80%. The Rijksoverheid page on the fiets van de zaak is a good starting point for the rules.

Route 3: bruto-netto uitruil, you buy and own the bike

You buy the e-bike yourself and swap part of your gross salary for a tax-free allowance to pay for it. You own the bike from day one and there is no bijtelling, but the employer designates the whole allowance as eindheffingsloon, so the full bike price uses WKR free space. That is why not every employer offers it. On a €2,500 e-bike the tax saving is about €894 at 35.75%, €939 at 37.56% and €1,238 at 49.50%, so your net cost lands between roughly €1,260 and €1,610. Insurance and servicing are on you.

Route 4: your own bike plus the kilometre allowance

No scheme at all: you buy the e-bike and, if your employer pays a commuting allowance, they can pay up to €0.25 per km tax-free in 2026. Note the wording. That is a ceiling for your employer, not a right, and you cannot claim it yourself. Your contract or collective agreement decides whether it is paid. Some employers also lend the money for the bike interest-free and let you repay it from the allowance. Our overview of what an e-bike costs in the Netherlands shows the purchase side of this equation.

What a company e-bike actually costs you per month

Let us price a real example, the one we also use in our e-bike lease guide for employees: a €2,500 e-bike on a 36-month all-in lease of €80 per month gross, with service, maintenance and theft insurance included. A gross lease has two parts: the fee after tax relief, and the tax on the 7% bijtelling (€14.58 a month on this bike). Add them and you get the real monthly figure.

Buying the same bike privately costs about €69 per month to spread the purchase over 36 months, plus roughly €9 for e-bike insurance and €12 for servicing. That is around €90 per month, and you carry the repair risk yourself.

That gap is the whole scheme in one picture. Over the full 36 months the lease costs roughly €1,715 to €2,040 net, against about €3,255 if you buy privately. Keep the bike at the end and the takeover price (often around 20% of the original price, so about €500) still leaves the lease ahead. Notice what sits inside the lease payment: annual service, wear parts, theft insurance, often a replacement bike during repairs. Privately, those are separate invoices and separate worry.

If your employer’s calculator shows a lower number than mine, check two things. First, whether it leaves out the bijtelling. Second, whether insurance and service are really in the fee. That is where cheap-looking schemes hide their costs.

What changed for 2026

• The kilometre allowance moved. The tax-free rate is €0.25 per km for the whole of 2026, up from €0.23 in 2024 and 2025, with retroactive effect from 1 January. The Belastingdienst explains how employers process it. Your employer does not have to pay the higher rate unless your contract or collective agreement says so, so ask.
• Second bike confirmed. Two company bikes under the 7% rate is now settled, with the 7% worked out per bike on its own price.
• Shared bikes get a nil rate. The Belastingplan 2026 put it beyond doubt, retroactive to 2020: ov-fiets-style and hub bikes that stay at your home no more than about 10% of the time carry no bijtelling at all.
• Brackets shifted slightly. The 2026 box 1 rates are 35.75%, 37.56% and 49.50%, with the middle bracket running from €38,883 to €78,426. Small changes, but they move your net lease cost by a euro or two per month.
• WKR stayed put. Free space is still 2.00% of the payroll sum up to €400,000 and 1.18% above it, so Route 2 neither got cheaper nor dearer.

One rule did not change but trips people up every year: once you sit in a fietsplan, your employer may no longer pay you a tax-free kilometre allowance for cycling commutes on that bike. Allowances for days you travel by train or car can continue. The next box shows how much that can matter.

Setting up a scheme as an employer, step by step

1. Pick the construction. A gross-salary lease (Route 1) for broad uptake, an employer-paid lease with the bijtelling in the WKR (Route 2) as a perk, a bruto-netto uitruil (Route 3) if staff want to own the bike, or the kilometre allowance alone (Route 4) if you want zero administration.
2. Check your WKR headroom before promising anything tax-free. A plain lease sits outside the WKR and only the bijtelling uses space if you absorb it. A bruto-netto uitruil uses the full bike price. Remember the 80% end levy beyond the free space.
3. Choose a provider type. The Dutch market in 2026 splits into four flavours (table below). Compare service coverage and dealer network, not just the monthly fee.
4. Write the scheme rules. Budget caps, contract length, buyout price, job-change procedure, what happens during unpaid leave. If you have a works council, a salary-exchange construction changes employment conditions, so involve them early.
5. Wire up payroll. The bijtelling runs through every pay period, and you also pay employee-insurance premiums and the Zvw employer levy on it, so budget for that, not just the lease invoice. If you buy rather than lease, VAT is deductible in full on a bike up to €749 and capped at €130 above that.
6. Communicate net numbers. “7% bijtelling” makes eyes glaze over. “A €2,500 e-bike for about €55 a month, servicing included” gets people in the saddle.

Changing jobs, theft and other edge cases

• New employer mid-contract. Three doors: transfer the lease to the new employer (if they agree), buy the bike out at its current value, or hand it back. Transfer is usually the least painful, but only if the new employer takes part in a scheme. If you take the bike over privately, the bijtelling stops.
• Dismissal or long-term illness. Most providers have a separate early-termination route with its own calculation. Ask for the termination figures before you sign, not after.
• Theft or total loss. All-in contracts include theft insurance, often with a replacement bike inside the contract. Early buyouts can apply a depreciation clause, so read it once. It is short.
• Contract end. You choose: take the bike over at its then market value (providers often quote around 20% of the original price) or hand it back. A bought-out lease bike is not the same as a privately bought used one; our second-hand e-bike buying guide covers what to check either way.
• Unpaid leave or a sabbatical. A gross deduction needs gross salary. Agree a net payment or a pause in writing before you go.

Is a company e-bike worth it for you?

Only cycle two or three days a week? It still usually works. The 7% does not care how often you ride, and private use is unlimited.

The scheme also stacks with the rest of e-bike life in the Netherlands: a leased cargo e-bike for the school run, local subsidies and incentives in some municipalities, and solid picks for newcomers in our guide to the best e-bike for expats in the Netherlands. The scheme is just the cheapest way to put the bike under you.

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