Appearance expenses

Personal care costs

Monthly to the hairdresser, a new outfit, manicure or visit to the beautician: for many entrepreneurs, a representative appearance is part of the way he or she sells himself or herself and his / her goods. But does that mean you can deduct the costs you incur for personal care from your profits?

Is personal care deductible?

Costs for your personal care are in principle not deductible. It does not matter whether you incur the costs on business grounds, for example if you need a suit to wear to work or because a well-groomed appearance in your industry is highly valued.

On the website of the Tax Authorities it comes down to the following in short:

Work clothing is deductible. What workwear is, is defined as follows:

"Workwear is clothing that you can (almost) exclusively wear in the context of your company. This must be evident from the external characteristics of the clothing, for example: a uniform or overalls. Is the clothing also suitable for wearing outside your company? Then the clothing must be provided with a logo with an area of at least 70 cm2. The figurative mark must refer to your company."

A neat suit or shoes to wear to customers are therefore not deductible. Clothing with your company logo (>70 cm2), but also, for example, a briefcase is 100% deductible.

Exceptions

Although external care is almost never deductible, there are a number of cases where clothing, hairdresser or make-up are deductible. The criterion for deductibility is these costs incurred for achieving an appearance with which you could not show yourself outside the working atmosphere. Make-up for a theatre performance or an eccentric hairstyle during the filming of a commercial are examples of deductible costs for external care.

Grey areas

Entrepreneurs regularly incur costs that indirectly contribute to business operations, but overlap with personal goals. These grey areas often cause confusion: because when are they deductible or not? The ruling in a court case at the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam in 2020 reflects that there is a strict judgment. The demand of an actress to deduct costs for hairdressing and cosmetics from her taxable income (because according to her necessary for the exercise of her profession) and also wanted to increase her tickets for theatrical performances (because: research and possibility of gaining business contacts) was rejected. The achieved appearance by hairdresser and cosmetics was not only presentable within working atmosphere. Attending short-term events with a recreational character were judged by the court as consumption expenditure. (you can read the full statement  here)

Threshold amount

If you want to demonstrate that you only make costs for external care professionally, then you can justify this - if you perform as an artist or as  a presenter or if you are a professional athlete - by showing that these costs exceed a threshold for personal purposes. Costs for personal care above this amount in connection with the exercise of your profession are deductible above this threshold.
The Income Tax stipulates that for artists, presenters and professional athletes their appearance or body is so important that care costs are deductible.

An artist is someone who performs a performance that is viewed or listened to by the public. But also for artists, the clothing that could also be worn separately from the exercise of the profession is not deductible. It must therefore be special clothing, such as specific clothing for the stage or special outfits that you only wear during an audition or premiere.

In addition, the scheme only applies to additional expenditure, which means that there is a clear relationship between these additional expenses and professional practice. Costs for the hairdresser, beautician, manicure, dentist and make-up are also deductible for artists. Again, it is about the extra expenses. This means that the expenditure is higher than a minimum limit. Below this limit, expenditure on personal care and clothing is considered customary.

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