ISDE: what you get back on a Dutch home upgrade (2026)

The Netherlands gives you nothing back on the labour of an ordinary home repair. There is no equivalent of Sweden’s ROT or Germany’s §35a here: no income-tax deduction for a plumber’s or an electrician’s hours. What the Dutch system rewards instead is energy improvement, through the ISDE subsidy, which pays a fixed amount toward a heat pump, insulation, a solar water heater, or a heat-network connection. You claim it from RVO after the work is done, not at the invoice. Source: RVO, ISDE voor woningeigenaren

ISDE pays for energy, not repairs

The first thing to be clear about is what ISDE does not touch. A leaking tap, a new kitchen, a repointed wall, a replaced gutter: none of it qualifies, however much labour is involved. The subsidy is for a defined list of energy measures, and a job only counts if it is on that list.

The measures and their 2026 amounts:

Measure	ISDE amount (2026)
(Hybrid) heat pump	from €500, by type, label, and kW
Floor insulation (bodemisolatie)	up to €520, before the doubling rule
Solar water heater (zonneboiler)	up to €3,417
Ventilation (with an insulation measure)	€400, once
Connection to a heat network (warmtenet)	€3,775

The heat-pump figure is the one that varies most: the amount is set by the type (air-water, ground-source, or water-water), the energy label, and the power, so a small hybrid lands around €2,000 and a ground-source system several thousand. Use the RVO rekentool for the figure tied to your exact model rather than budgeting on a round number. Two 2026 changes narrow it: a second air-water heat pump earns a reduced amount, and split air-water units with under 3 kg of refrigerant and a Global Warming Potential above 750 drop off the list entirely under EU F-gas rules.

The doubling rule most people miss

The insulation amount doubles when you do more than one measure. Carry out two insulation measures, or pair one insulation measure with a heat pump, solar water heater, or heat-network connection within 24 months, and the per-measure insulation subsidy is paid at double. Floor insulation alone is up to €520; the same floor insulation, done inside the window alongside a second qualifying measure, is up to €1,040.

The order does not matter and the measures do not have to be on the same invoice. What matters is that both fall inside the same 24-month window, which is the same window you have to claim in. A homeowner who insulates the floor this winter and fits a heat pump next autumn collects the doubled insulation amount as long as the two sit within 24 months of each other.

How the claim works

You claim ISDE yourself, after the work, and you wait for it. This is the opposite of Sweden’s model, where the deduction lands on the invoice. The sequence in the Netherlands is fixed: a professional installation company does the work, the invoice carries a meldcode that you ask the installer to add, and you submit the claim to RVO within 24 months of completion. You have to own the home and live in it.

Two conditions catch people out. You cannot install the measure yourself; an ISDE claim on self-installed equipment is refused. And the meldcode is not optional: it is the product registration code that tells RVO the equipment is on the eligible list, and an invoice without it cannot be processed. Confirm both with the installer before the work starts, on the quote, not after.

This is the kind of timing a maintenance record is built to hold: which measure was done when, whether a second measure still falls inside the doubling window, and the deadline to claim before it lapses. appkeep keeps that against each component so the subsidy is a date you act on rather than one you miss.

The labour break you do get: 9% BTW

There is one labour-side saving, and it is a VAT rate, not a deduction. Maintenance and renovation labour in a home older than two years is charged at the reduced 9% BTW rate instead of the standard 21%, and solar panels are supplied and installed at 0%. The plumber or installer applies the rate; you do not claim anything. The plumber rate guide for the Netherlands has the detail on which work qualifies for the 9% rate and how to check it on a quote.

Worked example: Sanne in Apeldoorn

Sanne is upgrading a 1990s detached house. She fits a hybrid heat pump, a 4 kW A+++ unit, and four months later has the floor insulated.

The heat pump qualifies for around €2,100 (the RVO rekentool gives the exact figure for that model and power). The floor insulation alone would be up to €520, but because she pairs it with the heat pump inside the 24-month window, the insulation amount is doubled, to up to €1,040. Her total ISDE claim is roughly €3,140, submitted to RVO after the floor work, with both invoices carrying their meldcodes.

What she does not get is any subsidy on the labour of the radiator rebalancing and the small pipework changes the heat pump needed, because that work is not on the ISDE list. The reduced 9% BTW applies to it, and that is all. The energy measures are subsidised; the plumbing around them is not.

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Related guides

• What a plumber should cost in the Netherlands: the 9% BTW rate on home-maintenance labour, with rates and mandates.
• What a boiler replacement costs: where the ISDE heat-pump subsidy fits into the replacement decision.
• Repair or replace: the maths that decides: the annual-cost comparison the subsidy feeds into.
• ROT-avdrag and kotitalousvähennys: the Swedish and Finnish labour deductions the Netherlands does not have.

Glossary terms used in this guide

• Glossary: Component: the heat pump or boiler as a distinct element with its own subsidy and lifespan.
• Glossary: Mandate: the budget ceiling you set before the installer starts.