For employers, HR & finance
Office lunch and the WKR, in plain language
The werkkostenregeling sounds like a headache, but for daily lunch it is refreshingly simple. This page explains how it works in about five minutes, no jargon and no number tricks. By the end you will know exactly where lunch fits and why a small employee contribution changes so much.
Informational, not tax advice. Figures apply to 2026.
The basics
So what is the WKR?
The WKR is the rule that lets you give your team extras without them being taxed as salary: a Christmas hamper, team drinks, or daily lunch. Everything you give this way adds up against one yearly pot, the free space. Stay under it and it is untaxed. Go over and you pay tax on that slice. That is all there is to it.
The pot
The free space: your untaxed budget
The free space is a percentage of your total wage bill. In 2026: 2.00% over the first € 400,000, and 1.18% over the rest. At a € 400,000 wage bill that is € 8,000 of untaxed room a year, for all perks combined.
| Year | Up to € 400,000 | Above that |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.00% | 1.18% |
| 2025 | 2.00% | 1.18% |
| 2024 | 1.92% | 1.18% |
Go over and you pay 80% eindheffing on that slice. That is your cost as employer, only on the amount above the line.
Try it yourself
How much free space do you have?
Slide to your total wage bill and see your untaxed room for 2026 straight away.
Indicative. The free space is shared with all perks, not just lunch.
The clever bit
A lunch counts as just € 4.05, whatever you pay
Most people miss this part, and it is good news. The tax office values a workplace meal not at what it costs, but at a fixed norm: € 4.05 in 2026. So a fresh € 12 lunch also counts as just € 4.05 against your free space. That is why daily lunch fits the WKR far better than you would think.
Norm amount 2026. The difference never touches your free space.
The lever
A small employee contribution does most of the work
Have your team chip in a small amount per lunch and that contribution comes straight off the norm. Taxed amount = € 4.05 minus the contribution, never below zero. At € 4.05 or more, nothing is left to tax and lunch does not touch your free space. A few euros takes the whole lunch out of tax for most teams.
What gets taxed per lunch
- Contribution € 0 € 4.05 taxed
- Contribution € 2 € 2.05 taxed
- Contribution € 4.05+ € 0 taxed
Purely illustrative, per meal. Your own wage bill and numbers set the total, which we walk through with you.
Even better
Business meals are a different thing entirely (and often 100% free)
An ordinary team lunch runs through the free space. But a meal with a genuine business purpose, think a sales meeting, lunch with a client or an event with business relations, falls under a separate exemption and does not touch your free space. It is untaxed, apart from everything above. So it pays to keep a team lunch and a client meal separate.
80% or 73.5%? It depends on your tax
You often see "80% of food and drink is deductible." True, but only for income tax, so sole traders and partnerships. For a BV or NV it is not 80% but 73.5%. That is the exact number your accountant uses, and the one many catering sites get wrong. In both cases a threshold applies before the deduction starts.
Where we help
We invoice it correctly from the start
You do not need to be a tax specialist, but it helps when the invoices are clean. We put daily lunch and one-off business meals separately on the invoice, so your accountant books everything in the right place at once. No tax advice, just as little hassle as possible.
- 9.000+ meals a month
- 70+ Amsterdam offices
- 10+ years experience
Common questions
Does daily lunch cost me tax or not?
It depends on the employee contribution. With no contribution, each lunch uses € 4.05 of your free space. With a contribution of € 4.05 or more per lunch, the taxed amount is zero and lunch does not touch your free space. If all your perks together exceed the free space, you pay 80% on that slice.
Does the full lunch price count, or just € 4.05?
Just € 4.05 (norm amount 2026). A workplace meal is valued at that fixed norm, regardless of what it actually costs. So a € 12 lunch counts the same as a € 5 lunch: both € 4.05.
What is the difference between a team lunch and a business meal?
An ordinary team lunch runs through the free space (€ 4.05 per meal). A meal with a genuine business purpose, such as a sales meeting, lunch with a client or an event with business relations, falls under a specific exemption and is untaxed, separate from your free space. We split the two on the invoice.
Is food and drink 80% deductible for my BV?
For a BV or NV (corporate tax) it is 73.5%, not 80%. The 80% is for income tax, so for sole traders and partnerships. A threshold also applies in both cases. Your accountant knows which applies to you.
This page is informational and not tax advice. The amounts and percentages mentioned apply to 2026 and can change from year to year. For your specific situation, check with your accountant or tax adviser. Source: Belastingdienst (Handboek Loonheffingen 2026).