Company car tax (bijtelling) for the self-employed: every rule, rate and worked example for 2026 and 2027

Few subjects cause as much confusion as the company car. That is because three separate rules apply at the same time, each with its own logic: the bijtelling in income tax, the VAT correction for private use, and the question of whether the car belongs to your business assets at all. They do not work the same way, they do not count the same kilometres, and they regularly point in opposite directions. Below is the full picture: the 2026 rates, what changes in 2027, and worked examples you can apply to your own situation.

First things first: does the car belong on the business?

Before bijtelling comes into play, you have to decide whether the car belongs to your business assets or your private assets. This is called vermogensetikettering, and your freedom of choice is limited. If you use the car 90% or more for business, it must be a business asset. If you use it 90% or more privately, it must be private. Anything in between is a genuine choice you make yourself. You make that choice in principle when you start using the car, and you cannot simply revisit it later.

What the bijtelling actually is

The bijtelling is not a tax and not an invoice from the Belastingdienst. For an income-tax entrepreneur it is a withdrawal: all car costs come off your profit, and a fixed amount is then added back because you also use the car privately. On balance you pay tax on the difference. What you actually part with is not the bijtelling itself, but the bijtelling multiplied by your marginal tax rate. That distinction is routinely missed: a bijtelling of EUR 700 a month does not cost you EUR 700 a month.

The 2026 rates

Four regimes apply in 2026. The standard rate is 22% of the catalogue value and covers virtually every car with emissions: petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid. Fully electric cars get a 4 percentage point discount over at most EUR 30,000 of catalogue value, which works out as 18% on the first EUR 30,000 and 22% on anything above it. Hydrogen cars and cars with integrated solar panels of at least 1 kilowatt-peak have no such threshold: 18% applies to the entire catalogue value. And youngtimers are taxed at 35%, but on the current market value rather than the original list price.

The rate is fixed for 60 months

The rate that applies when the car is first registered stays in place for 60 months, starting on the first day of the month after first registration. Drive an electric car registered in 2026 and you keep the 2026 rate until 2031, even if the rules change in the meantime. After those 60 months you move to whatever rate applies then. Youngtimers work differently: there, the car's age decides the regime afresh each year.

The EV discount is being phased out in two steps

During the passage of the 2026 Tax Plan, parliament used an amendment to stop the electric-car discount disappearing in one go. Instead it runs down in two steps: 4 percentage points in 2026 capped at EUR 1,200, 2 percentage points in 2027 capped at EUR 600, and no discount at all from 2028. That softening was funded by tightening the youngtimer rule, which is why the two topics keep appearing together in the news.

Youngtimers: 2026 versus 2027

The youngtimer rule exists because charging bijtelling on the original catalogue value of an old car would produce an absurd amount. Instead you pay 35% of the current market value. Up to and including 2025 the rule applied to cars first used more than 15 years ago. The 2026 Tax Plan raised that to 16 years for 2026, and raises it to 25 years from 1 January 2027. From 2027, cars between 16 and 25 years old therefore fall back on the ordinary 22% of catalogue value, which is usually a far higher figure.

What that means in practice

Take a car with an original catalogue value of EUR 45,000 and a current market value of EUR 8,000. In 2026, as a youngtimer, the bijtelling is 35% of EUR 8,000: EUR 2,800 a year, or just over EUR 233 a month added to profit. If the same car falls outside the rule in 2027, it becomes 22% of EUR 45,000: EUR 9,900 a year, or EUR 825 a month. At a marginal rate of 49.12% the tax burden therefore rises from roughly EUR 115 to roughly EUR 405 a month - provided the car actually costs you that much, on which more below.

Reclassifying the car on 1 January 2027

Because the change alters the fiscal picture so fundamentally, the Belastingdienst knowledge group confirmed in early 2026 that it can be grounds for reclassifying the car on 1 January 2027. You do need to make it plausible that you would have made a different choice under the new rules. For anyone holding a youngtimer that will fall outside the scheme, moving the car to private assets is a real option - but calculate the tax settlement on that transfer first.

Can the bijtelling exceed your actual car costs?

This is the question that gets answered wrongly most often, and the answer depends on your legal form. If you are an income-tax entrepreneur - sole trader, partnership - the answer is no. The withdrawal never exceeds what you actually spent on the car that year, including depreciation. The Belastingdienst puts it plainly: the set-off is at most the amount you have in car costs. At worst your deduction disappears, but you never pay tax on a benefit you did not receive. If you are an employee or a director-shareholder with a car owned by a BV, that cap does not exist: there the bijtelling falls under wage tax and you pay the full percentage, even if the car is cheap to run.

No bijtelling at all: the 500 kilometre threshold

Drive no more than 500 private kilometres a year in the company car and there is nothing to settle. Commuting counts as business travel for income tax and therefore does not count towards those 500 kilometres. You do have to prove it, in practice with a watertight trip log recording, for each trip, the date, the opening and closing odometer readings, the departure and arrival addresses, the route if it differed from the usual one, and whether the trip was business or private.

The VAT correction for private use

Alongside income tax there is VAT. If the car is a business asset for VAT purposes, you reclaim all VAT on purchase, fuel, maintenance and repairs during the year, then correct for private use at year end. If you can demonstrate actual private use with a watertight kilometre log, you correct on that basis. If you cannot, a flat rate applies: 2.7% of the list price including VAT and BPM in the year of purchase and the four years after, and 1.5% thereafter. That same reduced 1.5% rate also applies when you could not deduct VAT on purchase, for instance with a margin-scheme car or one transferred in from private assets.

Worked example: the VAT correction

Buy a car with a list price of EUR 40,000 on 1 April and deduct the VAT, and the first year's correction is pro rata: nine twelfths of 2.7% of EUR 40,000 is EUR 810. In the four full years that follow you pay 2.7% of EUR 40,000, or EUR 1,080 a year. After that the correction drops to 1.5% of EUR 40,000, or EUR 600 a year. It keeps running for as long as you use the car in the business - even once the car is largely written down and the cap has reduced your bijtelling to nil.

The alternative: using your own car for business

Keep the car in private assets and there is no bijtelling and no VAT correction. Instead you deduct a fixed amount per business kilometre from your profit. In 2026 that is 25 eurocents per kilometre, up from 23 cents in 2025, and commuting counts as business travel. In exchange you deduct nothing else: fuel, insurance, maintenance, tolls and parking are all deemed to be covered by that amount. You may still reclaim VAT on car costs in proportion to business use - and for that purpose commuting kilometres count as private again.

How to work out which is better for you

The comparison is simpler than it looks, because the car costs you the same either way. What differs is the tax treatment. Put the car on the business and your benefit equals the difference between the car costs and the bijtelling, times your marginal rate, plus the VAT you reclaim and minus the VAT correction. Keep it private and your benefit is 25 cents per business kilometre times your marginal rate, plus VAT on the business share of the costs. Whichever produces the larger figure wins. Rule of thumb: many business kilometres in a relatively cheap car argues for private ownership; an expensive car with high costs and few business kilometres argues for the business; and a youngtimer with a low market value is almost always better off on the business.

Run your own numbers

The calculator below follows exactly the logic set out above: rate times base, the cap at your actual car costs, a marginal rate that includes the SME profit exemption, the VAT correction, and the private alternative at 25 cents per kilometre. Switch between 2026 and 2027 to see what the changes mean for your car.

What about the other car taxes?

Alongside bijtelling and VAT there is road tax. Zero-emission cars get a 30% discount on the road tax rate in 2026. That discount stays at 30% through 2028, falls to 25% in 2029 and disappears from 2030. It matters when choosing an electric car: the bijtelling discount runs out while the road tax discount lasts a few years longer - but that one ends too. With a youngtimer, older diesels increasingly run into low-emission zones in some municipalities: attractive fiscally, restricted practically.

Whether your car is better placed in the business or privately depends on your kilometres, your cost level, your profit and the type of car - and for a youngtimer, on what is decided on Budget Day. Dutch Tax House is happy to work the scenarios through with you, including what a transfer to private assets on 1 January 2027 would mean. Get in touch to talk it through.