Nothing sounds as nice as tax benefits and subsidies, but the average Dutch person knows that this comes with a list of conditions and exclusions and that all the benefits of this year can disappear like snow in the sun next year. Especially in the field of electric driving and tax benefits for electric cars (certainly for private individuals) a lot has changed in recent years. What about subsidies, tax benefits and other deductions that you can use if you were to opt for an electric car now?
Why was a tax benefit introduced for electric cars?
The European Union has drawn up a package of guidelines, objectives and requirements to combat excessive CO2 and nitrogen emissions. The Netherlands is participating courageously and has tightened many of the guidelines itself, but that does mean that there is work to be done. In order to reduce emissions and the burden on the environment, it has been decided, among other things, that fewer fossil fuels must be used. One of the ways to achieve this is to encourage electric driving. After all, electric cars do not use diesel or petrol, although it is of course questionable whether grey or green electricity is used for charging. As more and more people are becoming well aware of this and many large energy suppliers are responding to this (also with public charging stations), this effect is being further strengthened.
But stimulating electric driving in the Netherlands was easier said than done, especially with the huge price difference between the average electric car and a new car without a plug. To reduce this gap and make the EV more attractive to Dutch car owners, numerous advantages have been set up, including tax benefits and subsidies.
As usual, business users benefit considerably more from this than people who are looking for tax benefits for electric cars as private individuals. There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, companies have larger fleets, which makes the difference greater. In addition, Dutch businesses have previously proven to be a driver of innovation. Another, less mentioned reason, is that subsidies and tax benefits for companies always end up in the state treasury in the long term.
It should be added that the government's efforts in other areas have ensured that the Netherlands has acquired a pioneering role. For example, the Netherlands has been the country with the best charging infrastructure (number of charging stations per square kilometre) in the world for years and it does not look like we will lose that title in the next five to ten years. This shows that there are advantages to a limited size of the country.
Tax benefits for private individuals who drive electric cars
One of the tax benefits for users of an electric car is that no BPM (tax on passenger cars and motorcycles) has to be paid. The BPM is calculated on the basis of the CO2 emissions per kilometer and the fully electric car has no emissions. This measure applies until at least 1 January 2025 (and can be extended).
In addition, you also do not pay motor vehicle tax (MRB) for an electric car. In 2024, there will still be a full exemption, but in 2025 this will go to 25% of the normal MRB amount for your car.
It is important to remember that this only applies to fully electric cars. Hybrid models are completely out of the running when it comes to tax benefits and exemptions.
Private users can also use the subsidy. For 2024, a pot of 58 million euros has been made available, from which you as a private user can receive € 2950 when purchasing a new electric car. This can be done on the website of the RVO . If you choose a used second-hand car, you can count on a subsidy amount of € 2000.
That is a considerable package of benefits, although we should add that the benefits have been greater in the past, but have been reduced over the years (and will continue to be reduced).
What about tax benefits and subsidies for business users?
Business users have a tax benefit for the electric car in the form of a reduced additional tax (16%) for the whole of 2024, although there is much talk about scrapping this benefit. As a business user, you can also use the MIA and Vamil schemes. These two tax benefits apply not only to the purchase of an electric car, but also to the installation of a charging station. It does not seem that the government will tinker with this scheme any time soon, partly because these schemes have been around for much longer but now also include electric cars and charging stations.
Business users can also count on subsidy, but only when you opt for electric vans. The subsidy amounts to 12% of the purchase price with a maximum subsidy amount of €5,000. Business users are not eligible for subsidy for an electric passenger car.
What does the future of the tax benefit for electric cars look like?
Already when the tax benefits and subsidies were introduced, there was talk of phasing out the measures when the gap would become smaller. Now, reports are increasingly emerging that EV drivers should pay road tax because the EV is on average (considerably) heavier than the average car on petrol or diesel. Unfortunately, there is little more to say about this and it is mainly good to keep an eye on the news, to see what The Hague decides for the coming years.
Will electric driving still be cheaper in the future with fewer tax benefits?
The measures were not only introduced to make electric driving more attractive, but also to close the gap that existed when electric driving was introduced. The new electric cars were screamingly expensive, there were hardly any charging stations and there was little knowledge about the infrastructure. Now that the subsidies and benefits are slowly being phased out, we can also clearly see that the difference has become much smaller since the initial phase.
As developments in the field of electric driving continue at a rapid pace and more and more affordable electric cars and competitively priced charging stations and charging cables come onto the market, electric driving will continue to be cheaper than driving on petrol and diesel in the future.
