From 1 January 2026, the BTW you deduct on large renovation and maintenance services on real estate is no longer locked in at the moment of deduction. For services of EUR 30,000 or more, the deduction is tracked for 4 more years and adjusted if your business vs private use shifts by more than 10%. Here is what changed, who it hits, and what to do.
What Is the New 2026 Rule and Why Should You Care?
Until the end of 2025, BTW on services (including big renovations) was deducted once at the moment the service was performed, based on your intended business vs exempt or private use at that time. After that, the deduction was final. No clawback if you later sold the building or shifted use.
From 1 January 2026 that changes for "investeringsdiensten" (investment services) on immovable property worth EUR 30,000 or more excluding BTW. The deduction now works like the long-standing rule for investment goods: it is tracked for several years and revised if your actual use diverges from your original intent.
The new mechanism in one paragraph: in the year you first put the service into use (year of ingebruikname), you deduct BTW based on your intended business use. In each of the next 4 calendar years, you check whether your actual taxed vs exempt or private use is still within 10 percentage points of the year of ingebruikname. If it deviates by more than 10%, you correct one fifth (1/5) of the original BTW deduction in the last BTW return of that year (Q4 or December).
Why it matters: a ZZP'er who deducted EUR 6,300 BTW on a EUR 30,000 home-office insulation in 2026 can lose part of it back if the home office shrinks in 2027, 2028, 2029, or 2030. A landlord who renovates and shifts a unit from taxed B2B rent to BTW-exempt residential rent can also face clawback. Conversely, increased business use can earn you BTW back.
Related guides on Taxmo: BTW Filing Guide (quarterly mechanics) · ZZP Expenses Guide (deductibility basics) · Margeregeling 2026 (other BTW change for 2026).
Which Services Qualify as an Investeringsdienst?
An investeringsdienst is a service that renews, enlarges, repairs, replaces, or maintains a building or terrain in a way that delivers multi-year benefit, and where the value of the service is at least EUR 30,000 excluding BTW.
Belastingdienst examples that qualify:
- Painting window frames, doors, and exterior woodwork
- Asbestos and soil remediation
- Kitchen or bathroom installation including finishing work
- Roof renovation
- Facade renovation
- Insulation of walls, floors, or roof
- Replacement of installations integrated in the building
What typically does NOT qualify:
- Small repairs and routine maintenance below EUR 30,000 per service
- Pure goods purchases (those follow the existing investment goods regime: 9 years for real estate, 4 years for movable goods)
- Cleaning, gardening, and other recurring operational services
How the EUR 30,000 threshold is measured: per service, excluding BTW. One supplier invoicing EUR 32,000 ex-BTW for a roof renovation is in scope. Three separate suppliers each invoicing EUR 12,000 for unrelated work on the same building are each below the threshold and out of scope. Be careful with contractors that split one project across multiple invoices, the substance of the service governs, not the invoicing structure.
Edge case worth flagging to your accountant: mixed packages (e.g. a kitchen renovation invoiced as "materials EUR 18,000 + installation labour EUR 14,000"). The Belastingdienst position is that when the installation is integrated into the building, the combined value is what counts.
How Does the 4-Year Review Period Work?
Take a concrete example: in 2026 you book an investment service of EUR 30,000 ex-BTW (EUR 6,300 BTW at 21%). At the moment of ingebruikname you use the renovated space 80% taxed business, 20% private. You deduct 80% of EUR 6,300 = EUR 5,040 in your normal quarterly BTW return.
- 2026 (ingebruikname): Actual taxed use: 80%; Deviation vs 80% baseline: 0 (baseline); Action: Deduct EUR 5,040 in the normal BTW return
- 2027: Actual taxed use: 80%; Deviation vs 80% baseline: 0%; Action: No revision
- 2028: Actual taxed use: 70%; Deviation vs 80% baseline: 10% (exactly at threshold); Action: No revision
- 2029: Actual taxed use: 60%; Deviation vs 80% baseline: 20%; Action: Revise: 1/5 x EUR 6,300 x 20% = EUR 252 back to Belastingdienst in Q4 2029
- 2030: Actual taxed use: 90%; Deviation vs 80% baseline: 10% (increase); Action: No revision (threshold is exclusive)
The mechanic step by step:
- Year of ingebruikname (year 0): deduct based on intended use. This year is NOT a review year. It sets the baseline percentage.
- Years 1-4 after ingebruikname: at the end of each calendar year, calculate your actual taxed business use for that year. Compare to the baseline.
- If the difference is more than 10 percentage points, revise 1/5 (one annual slice) of the original BTW deduction in proportion to the deviation.
- Direction of the correction: Use went down: report the revision in rubriek 1a (extra BTW payable) of the last BTW return of that year. Use went up: report in rubriek 5b (extra BTW deductible) of the last BTW return of that year.
- After year 4, the deduction is final. No more revisions for that service.
Important: the review applies to each investment service separately. If you have multiple services in different years, you track multiple parallel revision timelines.
What Triggers a Revision in Practice?
Several real-world events can flip your business-vs-private percentage by more than 10 points:
- Shrinking or expanding your thuiskantoor (home office) because you took on more or fewer private rooms after a renovation
- Switching tenants in a rental property from BTW-taxed B2B leases to BTW-exempt residential leases (or vice versa)
- Mixed-use buildings where the share of taxed vs exempt activity shifts (e.g. a tandartspraktijk that adds cosmetic procedures, which fall outside the medical exemption)
- Selling the property during the 4-year period, which can trigger a full revision based on the use up to the moment of sale (consult your accountant; the rules for a "verkoop tijdens herzieningstermijn" need a tailored read)
- KOR opt-in mid-period: switching to the small business VAT exemption typically counts as a major shift from taxed to exempt use, triggering revision
- Liquidating or stopping the business during the review period
Note for accountants: the EU origin of this is articles 187-191 of the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC). The Dutch implementation comes via the 2025 BTW legislative update that adds investment services to the herziening regime that already existed for investment goods. The detailed mechanics live in the Uitvoeringsbeschikking OB and the Belastingdienst guidance from 2025.
How to Calculate the Revision Amount
The formula:
Revision in year N = (1/5) x (total BTW on the service) x (deviation percentage)
Where:
- 1/5 reflects that one slice (annual) is revised, since the review period plus the year of ingebruikname covers 5 years.
- Total BTW on the service is the BTW shown on the original supplier invoice (typically 21%).
- Deviation percentage is the difference between actual taxed use in year N and the baseline taxed use in the year of ingebruikname.
Worked example, full path:
You deduct EUR 6,300 BTW on a EUR 30,000 ex-BTW insulation job in 2026 at an 80% taxed business baseline.
- 2027: actual taxed 75%. Deviation = 5%. Not more than 10%. No revision.
- 2028: actual taxed 65%. Deviation = 15%. Revision = 1/5 x EUR 6,300 x 15% = EUR 189 in rubriek 1a (payable) in Q4 2028.
- 2029: actual taxed 60%. Deviation = 20%. Revision = 1/5 x EUR 6,300 x 20% = EUR 252 in rubriek 1a in Q4 2029.
- 2030: actual taxed 85%. Deviation = 5%. No revision.
Total clawback over the 4-year period: EUR 441 of the original EUR 5,040 deduction. The other EUR 4,599 is locked in.
Watch out: the 10% threshold is exclusive. Exactly 10% deviation = no revision. 10.01% = revise.
Who Is Most Exposed (and What to Do Now)
High-risk groups for 2026 onwards:
- ZZP'ers with a thuiskantoor who plan to renovate, insulate, or upgrade and would deduct BTW based on home-office percentage. Any change in the percentage over the next 4 years could cost or earn back BTW.
- Landlords (verhuurders) of commercial property under taxed lease structures (BTW belaste verhuur). Tenant changes can flip the use to exempt.
- Mixed-use practitioners such as tandartsen, fysiotherapeuten, opticiens, where a small share of activity is taxed and a small shift moves the needle.
- Contractors and installers selling these services. You are not subject to the herziening, but your clients will start asking about it. Quote the service value ex-BTW prominently and itemise materials vs labour clearly so the buyer can apply the rule.
- Anyone considering the KOR who has done a large renovation in the past 4 years.
What to do in 2026:
- Tag every invoice over EUR 30,000 ex-BTW on real estate in your bookkeeping with a "herziening" flag and a baseline-use percentage.
- Document the year of ingebruikname. This is the anchor of the whole 4-year clock.
- Schedule an annual check every December: pull each tagged service from the previous 4 years, recompute actual business use for the calendar year, and apply the 1a / 5b correction in the Q4 BTW return if needed.
- Talk to your accountant before signing the KOR aanmelding, selling property, or major use changes if you have any tagged services in the last 4 years.
Practical impact of skipping this: if the Belastingdienst audits your BTW returns from 2026 onwards and finds missing revisions, you face naheffing plus interest plus potentially a vergrijpboete for willful non-correction. The herziening is now a standard audit talking point.
How Taxmo handles the herziening:
- Investment-service flag on any expense invoice over EUR 30,000 ex-BTW on real estate, with a prompt to record the baseline business-use percentage at the moment of deduction.
- Annual revision worksheet: every December the dashboard surfaces every flagged service still inside its 4-year window, shows the baseline vs current-year use, and computes the rubriek 1a or 5b correction automatically.
- Year-of-ingebruikname tracking so the 4-year clock starts on the right date for each service.
- Audit trail PDF per service: original invoice, baseline percentage with calculation method, year-by-year actual percentages, and every revision posted.
Start with the free plan and tag your first investment service from the Entries page.
