Volunteer expense allowances 2026: amounts, rules and obligations

At Give a Day, we regularly get the same question: “Our volunteers incur expenses, how do we reimburse them correctly?” The answer starts with a single insight that defines everything: by the letter of the law, volunteering is unpaid. Every allowance a volunteer receives is therefore a reimbursement of expenses, never a reward for performance. In this blog, we review the two reimbursement systems, transport costs, and the associated administration. And hey, did you know that the Give a Day expense report module for volunteer organizations fully relieves you of all worries from A to Z?😉

Who can receive an expense allowance?

Every volunteer can receive an expense allowance. The Volunteer Act of 2005 defines who a volunteer is: he or she who gives his or her time unpaid, to a non-profit organization on a voluntary basis.

Please keep in mind that some volunteers receiving benefits (unemployment, sickness or disability benefits, living wage) have a duty to report (in advance, to the RVA/NEO, the advising physician of the mutual insurance association, or the case manager at the CPAS/OCMW respectively). So ask about this before starting. Infringement can lead to suspension.

Furthermore: the organization decides for itself whether it reimburses expenses and according to which system. You communicate this choice to your volunteers before they start. This is part of the legal information obligation. You do this via the information note or volunteer contract. If you change the arrangement later, you must inform them again before the change takes effect. A switch between the flat-rate and real system for an individual volunteer is only possible from the following calendar year.

Why an expense allowance is not a salary (and should not look like one)

Because an expense allowance is not an income, the volunteer does not pay taxes on it and does not have to declare it to the tax authorities as long as the thresholds are respected. No NSSO (RSZ) contributions are due either. As an organization, do not create tax sheets (fiscale fiches): this is not only unnecessary, but also risky: in the past, there have been precedents where such a sheet triggered an investigation into sham self-employment.

For the same reason, avoid allowances per hour or per piece. These are difficult to justify to the tax authorities and you will quickly exceed the legal maxima.

Two tracks for volunteers: actual expenses or a daily flat rate

The law provides two ways to reimburse expenses. A volunteer chooses one track per calendar year; combining both is not allowed, even if they are active in different organizations. As an organization, however, you can reimburse different volunteers using different systems. In that case, work with clear categories so that you can justify the choice.

Track 1: reimbursement of actual expenses

You reimburse the actual costs in full upon submission of supporting documents: invoices, receipts, tickets. No legal ceilings apply, but keep it reasonable: the costs must demonstrably arise from the volunteer work. This track is best suited for volunteers with high or highly fluctuating expenses.

Track 2: the flat-rate expense allowance

You pay a fixed amount without supporting documents. In return, two indexed ceilings apply, both of which you must respect: a maximum per day and a maximum per calendar year. The annual maximum is absolute and applies across all organizations where the volunteer is active. As an organization, you only see what you pay out. For example, if you receive a flat-rate expense allowance of €30 during the day at organization 1 and another €30 in the evening at organization 2, you are above your daily maximum and the tax exemption for the entire year may be voided. So, point out their responsibility to your volunteers.

The increased annual ceiling. For a limited number of categories, the annual maximum is higher, while the daily maximum remains the same. This concerns volunteers who perform certain roles in the sports sector, volunteers who perform night and sitting services for vulnerable individuals, and volunteers in non-urgent lying patient transport. If a volunteer combines ordinary and increased activities (e.g. at different organizations), the total of all allowances must remain below the increased annual ceiling, and the portion from regular volunteer work must remain below the regular annual ceiling. Specifically for the sports sector: anyone receiving benefits does not qualify for the increased ceiling and falls back on the ordinary flat-rate scheme.

Transport costs: the most important exception

For many volunteers, travel is the largest expense item, and that is precisely where the law provides one relaxation of the combination ban: on top of a flat-rate allowance, you may reimburse the actual travel costs up to a maximum of 2,000 kilometers per year per volunteer. This mileage limit does not apply to volunteers who regularly transport people.

Mileage allowances are possible for personal motorized transport and for bicycles, in each case within the legal maximum rates. From July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, the maximum for cars is €0.4761 per kilometer; for bicycles in 2026, the rate is €0.37 per kilometer. These rates are indexed, so check them annually with official sources. You can also opt for the quarterly indexing of the mileage allowance: from July 1 to September 30, 2026, the maximum is €0.4440 per kilometer. For simplicity, we at Give a Day only use and facilitate the annual indexing.

You can always offer a lower allowance per km or reimburse a percentage of the transport cost. This is determined by you as the organization. You must, however, communicate this in accordance with the duty to inform before the start of the volunteer work.

You can reimburse public transport tickets, but not a season ticket.

Keep supporting documents of every journey: routes or transport tickets with the volunteer's name, date, and signature, e.g. via the Give a Day expense report module.

What if the rules are not followed?

Anyone who exceeds the ceilings or combines systems incorrectly will see their expense allowances become taxable: the volunteer loses the tax exemption on all his or her expense allowances for that year and must declare them in their personal income tax, with all the fiscal consequences that entail. For the organization, this can mean a reclassification of the volunteer as an employee or self-employed person.

Three combinations deserve extra attention in this regard.

• Doing volunteer work and association work within the same organization is only possible if it concerns fundamentally different activities, each against a normal expense allowance. Alternating between both statutes for the same activity within the same calendar year is not permitted. Volunteer work in organization A and association work in organization B is allowed. Furthermore, the increased flat-rate allowance cannot be combined with association work within the same organization or for the same activity.

• The amateur arts allowance (AKV, the successor to the small compensation scheme since 2024) can never be combined with a volunteer allowance on the same day. Within the same calendar year, the combination is possible, provided that the activities take place on different days and the contracting parties are different.

• A flexi-job and volunteer work can be combined as long as they involve clearly different tasks: coach of the youth team as a flexi-jobber, and also volunteering behind the bar.

Giving a little extra is allowed: occasional gifts

If you want to surprise volunteers occasionally, this is perfectly possible alongside the expense allowances. Gifts do not count towards the ceilings, as long as you stay within the limits accepted by the NSSO (RSZ):

• gifts in kind, in cash, or as vouchers for Saint Nicholas, Christmas, or New Year: up to 40 euros per volunteer per year, plus 40 euros per dependent child;

• for an honorary distinction: up to 120 euros per volunteer per year;

• for a marriage or declaration of legal cohabitation: up to 245 euros per volunteer.

The administration: nominative list and expense reports

As an organization, you must keep a nominative list of all paid expense allowances per calendar year: the name of the volunteer, the amount, the expense allowance scheme, and the date of each allowance. This list is your burden of proof during inspection that the daily and annual maxima & the combination ban were respected. The payments themselves are registered in the accounting records as operating costs.

There is often confusion about the national registry number (rijksregisternummer): processing it is reserved for organizations authorized to do so, such as government bodies, e.g., for unique identification in government software like digital government accounting. If you are not authorized, do not include it and identify your volunteers in another way using at least their name. In any case, secure the list in accordance with GDPR and restrict access to it.

Does an expense report need to be signed? The legislation leaves room for interpretation here: there is no clear circular mandating a signature. A signature is only required when the expense report serves as official proof in the accounting records, when it contains a declaration on honor, or when you pay in cash and require a signature for receipt. Our advice: have them sign if it can be done without a heavy administrative burden — then you are always safe. With a flat-rate allowance, the volunteer can declare on honor that they do not exceed the daily and annual maxima; with actual expenses, that the costs incurred effectively arise from the volunteer work. You can also include such a declaration in the information note or have it signed separately every year.

Did you know that you can keep track of all costs via the Give a Day expense report module? You can track all expenses of all your volunteers from all your local branches in a GDPR-compliant manner in the Give a Day expense report module. What's more, we automatically check for preconditions across all of the volunteer's engagements. So exceeding maxima is a thing of the past. With one press of a button, you export the nominative list for inspection. In addition, we provide custom integrations and/or exports to very easily get this into your accounting software. For government bodies, we connect for example via the Arco integration or Peppol.

Conclusion

Remember the core: an allowance covers costs and does not reward performance, as a volunteer you choose one system, you respect the ceilings, and you keep your administration in order. This way you avoid almost every pitfall. Do you have doubts about a specific situation? Consult the sources below.

Sources

•     Give a Day, Helpdesk Document Volunteer Work and Law, version August 28, 2026

•     Vlaams Steunpunt Vrijwilligerswerk vzw, Expense Allowances, www.vlaanderenvrijwilligt.be/wetgeving/kostenvergoedingen

•     Act of July 3, 2005 on the rights of volunteers and the Royal Decree of December 20, 2018

•     National Social Security Office (NSSO) and FPS Social Security - annually indexed maximum amounts

•     AKV https://www.cultuurloket.be/kennisbank/bijverdienen-wat-zijn-je-mogelijkheden/amateurkunstenvergoeding-akv

•     Flexi-jobs https://sportwerk.be/flexi-jobs-in-de-sport/

•     Association work and volunteer work https://www.korfbal.be/?oid=1126&pid=30902&aid=101318&lg=2

•     Gifts https://www.socialsecurity.be/employer/instructions/dmfa/nl/latest/instructions/salary/particularcases/giftcheques.html

Amounts valid for 2026; the maximums are indexed annually.

About the author

Bart Wolput is the founder of Give a Day. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering with expertise in Social Smart Cities and teaches the postgraduate course in Volunteer Work at AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Each year, he trains more than two thousand non-profits on recruitment, appreciation, digital tools, volunteer law, and volunteer policy. Strengthening solidarity is what drives him, and he prefers to do this by effectively solving problems.

Follow Bart on LinkedIn for more on volunteer work and solidarity.