Office lunch and the WKR, in plain language
Under the Dutch werkkostenregeling (WKR), a staff lunch counts as € 4.05 per meal in 2026, whatever it actually costs, and with an employee contribution of € 4.05 or more the taxed amount is zero. It sounds like a headache, but for daily lunch it is refreshingly simple. Below, in a few minutes, is how it works, no jargon.
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. The calculator does the sum for you.
| 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 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.
Norm amount 2026. The difference never touches your free space.
The lever
A small contribution keeps your free space free
You do not have to ask for one: lunch can simply come out of the free space and nobody notices a thing. But daily lunch is a large, structural item, and that pot is shared with the Christmas hamper, the drinks and everything else. Ask for a contribution and it comes straight off the norm: taxed amount = € 4.05 minus the contribution, never below zero. At € 4.05 or more there is nothing left to tax, lunch does not touch your free space, and you keep the whole pot for the rest. The contribution is withheld from net pay, it is not a gross-salary swap like a bike scheme.
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.
What it is worth
What each side gets out of it
Everything above is the mechanism. This is what it buys you.
For the employer
Control, not admin
- Your free space stays intact. At a contribution from the norm amount up, lunch does not touch it, so it stays there for the Christmas hamper, the drinks and the rest.
- One invoice, no loose payments and no expense claims to chase.
- A ready-made overview for HR, set up to withhold through payroll. No new system needed.
- A secondary benefit you can point to, without it turning into a project.
For the employee
A few euros, lunch sorted
- For a contribution of a few euros a day, a fresh and complete lunch. Making the same at home soon costs more, certainly once you count the shopping and the time.
- No cash, no separate payment, no expense claim. Flag it in the ordering system, withheld from net pay.
- A different choice every day, freshly made, and one less decision to make at noon.
Contribution amounts on this page are illustrative. You set the amount yourself.
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.
See meeting and event cateringFollow the money
Where does the rest of the money go?
Say the lunch costs € 14 and the contribution is € 4. Three amounts then run side by side, each in a world of its own. The full price and the norm amount have nothing to do with each other.
Example amounts, purely illustrative.
80% or 73.5%? It depends on your tax
You often see "80% of food and drink is deductible." That applies to income tax only. For a BV it is 73.5%, the exact number your accountant uses and the one many catering sites get wrong. In both cases a threshold applies first.
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. If you work with an employee contribution, we keep the lunch registration and supply a weekly or monthly overview, ready for payroll. No tax advice, just as little hassle as possible.
- 9,000+ meals a month
- 70+ Amsterdam offices
- 10+ years experience
Common questions
What is the WKR norm amount for lunch in 2026?
€ 4.05 per meal. Every lunch at the office counts for this fixed norm amount against your free space, whatever the meal actually costs.
Does daily lunch cost me tax or not?
Usually not. With no contribution, each lunch uses € 4.05 of your free space, and as long as you stay under it nobody pays anything. With a contribution of € 4.05 or more, the taxed amount is zero and lunch does not touch your free space at all. Only if your free space runs out do you, as the employer, pay 80% eindheffing on the excess. You may instead let it land as taxed pay for the employee, but almost nobody wants that.
Does the contribution come out of gross or net pay?
Net pay. It is not a tax swap like a bike scheme: you simply withhold the amount from the salary you pay out. There is nothing to arrange with the tax office.
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).