Towards sustainability: benefit from subsidies and schemes

Making your business more sustainable can be quite an expense. Especially if you make more than one part of your business more sustainable. So find out about government subsidies and benefits. This can make a big difference in the costs. Also pay attention to whether you can combine subsidies with each other. This will give you an extra advantage. You will find more information on the details page for each subsidy at RVO. If you cannot work it out yourself, contact your accountant or call the KVK Advice Team.

• Sustainable business premises
• Sustainable transport
• Sustainable production process
• Tax schemes for sustainability investments
• Sustainable financing

Sustainable business premises

Many businesses must make their premises more sustainable by law. Think of entrepreneurs with offices that have to have energy label C. Sometimes this requires major investments, such as installing HR++ glass. For sustainable jobs, you can use tax benefits and/or subsidies.

Generate sustainable energy

Would you like to generate your own green energy? Or heat your building sustainably? Then you can use the Sustainable Energy Investment Subsidy (ISDE). You are entitled to the ISDE if you invest in a heat pump, a solar boiler or wind turbines. How much subsidy you get depends on the product you buy.

Sustainable transport

Sustainable transport is becoming increasingly important. From 2030, you will no longer be allowed to buy new petrol or diesel cars. In fact, from 2050 the Netherlands wants to be completely CO2 neutral and only sustainable vehicles will be allowed on the road.

Pay no road tax

You will pay no motor vehicle tax (mrb) for your electric or hydrogen car until 2024. In 2025, you will get a 75% discount on motor vehicle tax. The government has proposed a transitional arrangement that would mean you pay less mrb from 2026 to 2030. From 2030, you will have to pay the full amount even with your sustainable car.

Get a discount on additional taxable benefit

In the coming years, you will get a discount if you use your sustainable company car privately. In 2024, you will pay 16 per cent additional taxable benefit for electric, hydrogen or solar-powered cars. The reduced addition applies up to a list value of 30,000 euros. Above that, you will pay the standard additional tax rate of 22 per cent.

Drive sustainably at low cost

Buy or lease a zero-emission company car cheaply with the Subsidy for Zero-emission Commercial Vehicles (SEBA). With the SEBA, you get a 12 per cent subsidy on the net list price. There is a maximum of 5,000 euros subsidy per company car. You can only apply for this subsidy if the purchase or lease agreement has not yet been finalised. So make your application on time. 2024 is the last year of the SEBA, you can submit your application until 27 December (or until the budget runs out).

Buy or lease a company bicycle

Next to walking, cycling is the most environmentally friendly way to travel. If everyone in the world would use a bike as often as the Dutch, it would save up to 700 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. That amounts to 20% of the total emissions from private cars in the world. And thanks to a number of schemes, the bicycle can also earn you some savings.

Sustainable production process

Make your production chain sustainable

Through the Social Sustainability Fund, you and your suppliers can receive subsidies to make the production chain more sustainable. Businesses and organisations in the Netherlands can be reimbursed up to seventy per cent of the subsidy costs, with a maximum amount of €500,000.

Working towards an optimally sustainable production chain is important. And legislation like the reporting duty CSRD hammers that home. As of 2024, large companies have to report how they promote sustainability in their chain. As a supplier in that chain, you may expect questions on how sustainable you and your business partners are - even if you are an SME and do not yet have to repoirt yourself. 

Tax schemes for sustainability investments

Green investments are more attractive thanks to tax breaks. Thanks to these schemes, you pay less tax.

Invest in sustainable assets

Invest with tax benefits in greener premises, products or transport. Think, for example, of a car that emits less CO2 or an energy-efficient cooling installation. Thanks to the Energy Investment Allowance (EIA), you can deduct part of your sustainable investments from your taxable profit. You will then pay less tax. This only applies to investments on the RVO Energy List (in Dutch).

Write off sustainable investments favourably

Write off environmentally-friendly business investments at a convenient time for you. The Random Depreciation of Environmental Investments (Vamil) allows you to depreciate an arbitrary percentage in any year. In other words, the Vamil offers you the flexibility to choose when you write off which part of your investment. You may opt to write off the entire amount in the first year, or spread it across several years. This way, you pay less tax. The asset you depreciate must be on the Environmental list.

Deduct investment costs from taxable profit

Do you want to buy environmentally friendly business assets with a tax advantage? Make use of the Environmental Investment Allowance (MIA). This scheme allows you to deduct up to 45 percent of your investment costs from your taxable profit. As a result, you pay less tax. Combine MIA and Vamil for extra benefit.

An example: you buy an electric freight bicycle for your in-town deliveries. It costs 5,000 euros. In the Environmental list, you read that you can deduct 36% of the investment from your profit if you use the MIA. And that the Vamil allows you to deduct 75%. You decide to use the Vamil for one year. This is how you calculate your tax benefit:

1. MIA deduction: 36% of 5,000 euros is 1,800 euros.
2. Vamil deduction: 75% of 5,000 euros is 3,750 euros.

Combined, your total deduction amounts to 5,550 euros (1,800 + 3,750).

If your profit before tax was 50,000 euros, your new taxable profit will be 50,000 - 5,550 = 44,450 euros. You do not have to pay tax over the 5,550 euros deduction for your freight bike.

Sustainable financing

Do you have a good plan for an environmentally friendly project and are looking for investors? Make use of schemes especially for sustainable and circular projects.

Pay less interest

Are you working on an eco-friendly project, for example in the field of recycling or raw material savings? Have your investor apply for a green declaration. With such a green declaration, you pay a lower interest amount to your investor than with a normal loan.

Government guarantees

If you borrow money to make your business more sustainable, the government acts as guarantor. Thanks to this BMKB Groen scheme (SME-credit scheme Green), the risk for your financier is lower. This makes it easier to get a loan.