With the growing popularity of electric cars in Belgium, many freelancers are asking a practical question: how to recover the costs related to home charging of an electric vehicle used for professional purposes?
🧾 Reimbursement via an expense report
When you charge your electric car at home, the electricity used comes from your personal meter. If the car is used for professional purposes, you can bill your company for the electricity costs consumed for charging.
The simplest mechanism is to create an expense report (monthly or quarterly)
📉 Which rate to use? The CREG, official reference
The main challenge is to correctly assess the cost per kWh that you charge at home.
➡️ The Commission for Electricity and Gas Regulation (CREG) regularly publishes an average indicative rate of the cost of electricity for individuals.
This rate includes:
the price of energy,
transport and distribution,
taxes and fees.
💡 Advantage: The CREG rate is recognized by the Belgian tax administration as an objective and acceptable basis for evaluating your expenses.
🔌 How to determine the number of kWh?
To correctly establish your expense report, it is essential to reliably determine the number of (kWh) consumed at your home. There are several possibilities:
1️⃣ Use a smart (connected) charging station. These stations often provide monthly reports.
2️⃣ Check the data available via your vehicle's app (be sure to deduct the kWh charged outside your home, for which you have invoices via your charging card).
3️⃣ A reasonable estimate based on the mileage driven and the vehicle's average consumption (keep a written or digital record of calculations or readings, to justify them in case of a tax audit).
🧾 And in practice?
Below is an Excel expense report template, to be completed and saved as a PDF. You can then send it via "import a purchase" in the BILLY app.
👉 Example:
If the average CREG rate is €0.3456/kWh and you charged 150 kWh at your home during the month, you can create an expense report for €51.84.