Netherlands motorists to pay €147 million more in road tax next year

Car owners in the Netherlands will pay 147 million euros more in road taxes next year than this year, according to Statistics Netherlands. The increase is partly due to the growing fleet of vehicles, higher rates, and the particulate matter tax that will be implemented. In total, the government and provinces expect to collect almost 6.1 billion euros in road tax in 2020.

The road tax, or motor vehicle tax, consists of a government part and a part collected by the provinces. The government expects to collect 131 million euros more next year, the provinces 16 million euros more.

In the province of Friesland, both the road tax rate and revenue will increase by more than 20 percent compared to this year. This is due to a previous measure aimed to temporarily reduce the tax burden on car owners coming to an end. The road tax revenue is increasing both due to the rise in the rate and due to the growing number of cars in the province.

According to the stats office, this image is visible in most provinces. At the start of 2019 the Netherlands counted over 8.5 million passenger cars and 1.1 million commercial vehicles, an increase of 200 thousand compared to a year earlier.

The only provinces expecting to raise less money with road tax next year are Flevoland and Zuid-Holland. The decrease in Flevoland can be explained by a lease company leaving the province for Noord-Holland earlier this year. The road tax is always imposed on the car's owner - in this case the lease company - not its driver. Zuid-Holland is seeing the cars in the province increase, but reports that developments like a growing lease market and tax cuts for passenger cars with low emissions are tempering the growth in road tax revenue.

Noord-Holland will be the cheapest province when it comes to road tax rates next year, with a rate of 67.9 percent. Car owners with a vehicle of 1,200 kilograms which runs on petrol can expect to pay 139 euros per quarter next year, compared to 138 euros this year. Drenthe is most expensive with a rate of 92 percent - car owners in Drenthe will pay 156 euros for the same car, compared to 154 euros in 2019.

People who drive diesel cars face an additional surcharge. For a diesel car that weighs 1,200 kilos, that surcharge is 162 euros. There are also extra charges for polluting cars. For example, the owner of a car with no particulate matter filter or with too high emissions will pay another 48 euros on top of the diesel surcharge and the standard rate, a surcharge of 19 percent. In total, a person with an environmentally unfriendly car will pay around 349 euros in road tax in Noord-Holland and 366 euros in Drenthe next year, compared to 297 euros and 314 euros this year.