Who must keep a vehicle logbook?

Simply put – almost everyone who uses a car in business. 🙂 It does not matter whether you are VAT-registered, whether you claim the lump-sum transport allowance or actual fuel and parking expenses. The only people who do not have to keep a logbook are self-employed people who are not VAT-registered and are either in the flat-rate tax scheme or claim lump-sum expenses.

The Labour Code also requires a vehicle logbook if you have employees who drive your cars for work. To comply with occupational safety rules, an employee must not drive for more than 4.5 hours without a break. That break must last at least 30 minutes.

How do you keep a vehicle logbook?

You can easily keep records of individual journeys in Excel. However, if you have several cars, I would recommend getting an automated system that fills in the logbook for you based on the cars’ GPS data.

What must a vehicle logbook include?

If your business has several cars, you need to keep a separate logbook for each one. The logbook should include at least the following vehicle details:

  • vehicle type (passenger car, lorry…)
  • registration number
  • odometer reading on 1.1. and 31.12. (or at the beginning and end of the tax/accounting period)
  • details of when the vehicle started or ceased being used for business
  • average fuel consumption according to the full vehicle registration document

Even if you are not technically minded, do not worry: you will find most of this information in your car’s full vehicle registration document.

For each journey, you need to record the following:

  • date and time of departure and arrival
  • where you travelled from and to on the business trip
  • purpose of the business trip (e.g. business meeting, delivering goods, collecting materials…)
  • number of kilometres travelled
  • information about safety breaks (exact time, duration)
What if I also use the car privately?

In that case, you also need to record the number of kilometres driven privately. I will also cover the overall implications of using a company car privately on the blog in another article.

A vehicle logbook should not be underestimated: it essentially proves to the tax office that you really use company assets for business purposes. At the same time, however, you also have to be wary of it. If you are unsure, feel free to get in touch and we will look at it together. 🙂