Employers who provide their employees with a non-fully electric passenger car will start paying (hefty) taxes.
Bill
This measure has been included in the bills containing the tax plans for 2026. The aim is to encourage employers to stop making CO2-emitting passenger cars available to their employees. The said bills have yet to be debated by the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament, making it uncertain whether the measure will actually be introduced.
1-1-2027
It is envisaged that the levy will apply to non-fully electric passenger cars newly made available to employees from 1 January 2027. Employers therefore need not anticipate the (possible) new levy at this time. Of course, if the measure is passed by Parliament, it will have to be taken into account during 2026.
However, there will be a transitional arrangement. For cars made available to employees before 1 January 2027, the additional taxation will only apply from 17 September 2030. If the car changes employers before 17 September 2030, the transitional scheme will lapse. If a car is made available by an employer to another employee, the transitional scheme does continue.
Pseudo final tax
The (additional) tax is a so-called “pseudo final tax”. This means that the tax is borne by the employer. The levy amounts to 12% of the catalogue value (if the passenger car is older than 25 years, the market value is used instead of the catalogue value). For a car with a catalogue value of €75,000, the employer therefore owes €9,000 in payroll tax each year.
This levy is not instead of, but on top of the employee's payroll tax due on the additional taxable income for the private use of the car. That addition is currently 22% of the catalogue value of the car. With a catalogue value of €75,000, €16,500 is added to the employee's wage and at the highest rate, the employee pays €8,167 in wage tax on that.
The pseudo final tax only comes into play when the car is used (partly) for private purposes by the employee. But for this scheme, the employee's commuting is explicitly classified as private use.
The pseudo final tax applies to cars with vehicle category M1 (passenger cars), therefore not for vans (vehicle category N1, N2 or N3).