Wegenbelasting / Road Tax

Hi again.

How much you pay depends on the weight of the car and the type of fuel it uses.  Road Tax on diesel cars is so expensive that they are mainly driven by company car drivers who do a large amount of km every year (it has to be circa 20k p/annum for it to come anywhere near becoming an advantage).  I must admit, I didn't know the rate varied by Province (I've only ever lived in Overijssel).  We only ever ran a little 2nd hand hatch-back, really to do the shopping once a week.  Many people import accident damaged cars from Germany and get them rebuilt in Holland (can be cheaper than buying the top-end cars).

The Belastingdienst has an on-line calculator (link); it seems to reflect the cartax.nl link you provided.

To be honest, a lot of people in the Netherlands (particularly in the cities where parking is a real problem and rush-hour traffic is horrendous) get by without a car (the country isn't that big).  Public transport is really good there and most people use their bikes to get around town; kids in particular normally go to school on their bikes, the school run is a very rare thing there.

We used to pay our tax via our bank account every month.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

If you definitly want a car I would advise a car under a 1000 kg that's way cheaper. Dutch taxes and our petrol are expensive. Don't buy a diesel car you can't enter most cities and the taxation is insane.

Like Cynic says our public transport is pretty decent well to be honest not in the mornings it's very very busy.

Hi,

Thanks for your input and contextualizing private car ownership in the Netherlands and specifically for answering my question around how the tax is paid and verifying the accuracy of the calculator with the that of the tax authority. 

To be honest, I know that a lot of people in the Netherlands make use of public transport and bicycles for the majority of their transport needs, but we do intend to explore a lot and I like the flexibility that comes with having our own vehicle. 

Having said that, It is by no means decided that we will be getting a vehicle.  It will be quite a mindshift changing from being a two car family to a no car family though!    

I note that electric vehicles are exempt from paying road tax, but this might only be until the end of 2020, which makes it unlikely that the saving in tax will make up for the higher cost of an electric vehicle of its fossil fuel burning siblings.

You pay 3 monthly by "acceptgiro" or by direct debit . The tax for type of car you asked for is around 160 to 175 euros for 3 months (it depends where you live in the Netherlands).

As someone who operated a fleet of vehicles that included diesel, petrol, bi-fuel and electric, I would not advise anybody at the moment to invest in electric vehicles; for private use in the car size market, my advice would be petrol or bi-fuel.  If you do go for bi-fuel, then make sure you have some maintenance contract for the batteries.  Some manufacturers even offer separate contract-hire deals for the batteries by themselves.  Can discuss by DM if you wish to be bored to death on the subject.

Hi Cynic,

Thanks, and yes I will take you up on your offer to share your experience with EV vs "regular" vehicles.  I would be happy if you send this to me via DM as you have suggested.