What does your car cost a month?

Road tax Netherlands calculator: how it works

This road tax Netherlands calculator looks up your car by licence plate at the RDW and works out the motor vehicle tax with the 2026 rates and provincial surcharges.

Dutch road tax, officially motorrijtuigenbelasting (MRB), is paid per quarter for as long as a vehicle is registered in your name. It has three parts:

1. National part — based on the vehicle’s weight. Since 1 July 2026 this is the mass in running order (field G on the registration card), rounded to whole 100 kg.
2. Fuel surcharge — diesel cars and cars on LPG or another fuel pay a large surcharge on top of the national part. Diesels without a factory particulate filter also pay a 19% particulate surcharge.
3. Provincial surcharge (opcenten) — each province adds its own surcharge. In 2026 it ranges from 82.1 (Noord-Holland) to 104.4 (Zuid-Holland), so the same car can cost tens of euros a year more in one province than in another.

Electric cars and plug-in hybrids

Fully electric and hydrogen cars pay 70% of the normal rate from 2026 to 2028 (a 30% discount). It rises to 75% in 2029 and to the full rate from 2030. Because EVs are heavy, the amount can be higher than you might expect. Plug-in hybrids have paid the full rate for their fuel since 1 January 2026.

Vans and motorcycles

A van owned by a business has its own, lower rate without provincial surcharge; for quarters starting between 1 July and 31 December 2026 it is temporarily halved. A van owned by a private person pays the passenger-car rate. A motorcycle pays a fixed amount per quarter plus the provincial surcharge.

Licence plate lookup

Enter a Dutch plate and we fetch weight, fuel type and particulate-filter data from the RDW open data. Please double-check the result, especially for hybrids and converted vehicles.

Worked example

A petrol car with a mass in running order of 1,300 kg in Zuid-Holland:

The same car in Noord-Holland costs €172 per quarter: €64 a year less. A 1,500 kg diesel in Utrecht costs €466 per quarter, of which €235.85 is the diesel surcharge.

Official source: Belastingdienst — road tax changes · Belastingdienst — electric and hybrid · CBS — provincial surcharges · RDW open data

Calculate your road tax ↑

Company car tax (bijtelling) in the Netherlands

If you use a company car privately (more than 500 km a year), a percentage of its catalogue value is added to your taxable income: the bijtelling. You do not pay the bijtelling itself, but you do pay extra income tax on it.

Percentages in 2026

• Petrol, diesel and (plug-in) hybrid: 22% of the catalogue value.
• Electric (first registered in 2026): 18% on the first €30,000 and 22% on the part above.
• Hydrogen and solar cars: 18% of the full catalogue value.

The percentage is fixed for 60 months from the date of first registration. An EV from 2023 keeps the 2023 rule (16% up to €30,000) until 2028. After 60 months the percentage of that moment applies. Cars registered before 2017 move to 25% after 60 months.

From bijtelling to net cost

The calculator adds the bijtelling to your gross annual income and works out the difference in income tax using the 2026 brackets. It also takes the general tax credit and the labour tax credit into account, which shrink as your income rises. That is why the real rate on bijtelling is often around 50%, even in the second bracket.

If you pay a personal contribution to your employer for private use, it is deducted from the bijtelling. The comparison option shows at a glance which lease car is cheaper net.

Worked example

You choose an electric lease car with a catalogue value of €45,000 (first registered in 2026) and earn €50,000 gross a year.

• Bijtelling: 18% × €30,000 + 22% × €15,000 = €8,700 a year
• Extra income tax (incl. reduced tax credits): about €4,391 a year
• Net cost: about €366 a month

A petrol car with the same catalogue value costs about €416 net a month at 22% — €50 more.

Official source: Belastingdienst — company car · Belastingdienst — 2026 rates · SRA Auto en fiscus 2026

Calculate your bijtelling ↑

Fuel cost calculator and trip cost sharing

The calculator multiplies the distance by your car’s consumption and the price per litre (or per kWh for an electric car):

Cost = distance ÷ 100 × consumption × price

Choose return trip and the distance is doubled. Tolls, parking or a ferry are added to the total, which is then divided by the number of people in the car.

Converting consumption

In the Netherlands consumption is often written as “1 op 15”: one litre takes you 15 kilometres. That equals 100 ÷ 15 = 6.7 litres per 100 km. You can simply type 1:15 in the consumption field and it is converted automatically. For an electric car enter kWh per 100 km — most EVs use 15 to 20 kWh/100 km.

Which fuel price?

The price field starts at a recent Dutch national average. Motorway stations are often 10 to 20 cents more expensive, unmanned stations cheaper. Charging at home costs your own electricity rate; public chargers are usually considerably more expensive. Adjust the price for a more accurate result.

Real-world consumption is often 10–20% higher than the official figure, especially on the motorway, in winter or with a full car. For a fair split, use the consumption shown by your trip computer.

Worked example

Three of you drive from Amsterdam to Maastricht and back: 215 km each way. The car does 6.25 l/100 km on Euro 95 at €2.45 per litre, and parking costs €12.

• Distance: 2 × 215 = 430 km
• Fuel: 430 ÷ 100 × 6.25 = 26.9 litres
• Fuel cost: 26.9 × €2.45 = €65.84
• Total with parking: €77.84
• Per person: €77.84 ÷ 3 = €25.95

Official source: ANWB fuel prices · Milieu Centraal

Calculate your trip cost ↑

Mileage allowance: €0.25 per km tax-free

In 2026 a Dutch employer may reimburse up to per business kilometre tax-free. This applies to trips by your own car, bicycle, scooter or public transport, including commuting. Anything above the maximum is taxable wage: your employer withholds payroll tax on it, or covers it under the work-related costs scheme (werkkostenregeling).

Tax-free = kilometres × min(rate, maximum)
Taxable = kilometres × (rate − maximum)

The taxable part counts as ordinary income. How much you keep depends on your tax bracket; the calculator estimates the tax on the taxable part using the rate of the bracket you choose.

What is a business kilometre?

Every kilometre you drive for work: to clients, between offices, to a training course — and your daily commute. Private trips do not count. Keep a trip log so you can back up the number of kilometres.

No allowance, or a low one?

If you receive less than the maximum, you cannot deduct the difference in your income tax return. Your employer can, however, raise the allowance up to the maximum without tax. Self-employed people may claim the same amount per kilometre as a cost for business trips in a private car.

Worked example

You drive 1,200 business kilometres a month and your employer pays €0.30 per km.

• Total allowance: 1,200 × €0.30 = €360
• Tax-free: 1,200 × €0.25 = €300
• Taxable wage: 1,200 × €0.05 = €60

You pay income tax on the €60 at your bracket rate. In bracket 2 (37.56%) you keep about €37 of it.

Official source: Belastingdienst — travel allowance · Rijksoverheid

Calculate your allowance ↑

Car cost per month in the Netherlands

Most people underestimate what their car costs because they only see fuel and insurance. The biggest cost is often invisible: depreciation, the value lost between buying and selling. This calculator adds up every fixed and variable cost — the total cost of ownership.

• Depreciation = (purchase price − resale value) ÷ months owned. Leave the resale value empty and we estimate it: a car loses about 20% in the first year and about 13% a year after that.
• Fixed costs: insurance, road tax and maintenance (incl. MOT/APK and tyres), converted to per month.
• Fuel or electricity = kilometres per year ÷ 12 ÷ 100 × consumption × price.
• Interest (optional): what you pay on a loan, or the savings interest you miss because your money is in the car, on the average amount.

The cost per kilometre is the total yearly cost divided by the kilometres per year. If you drive little, the cost per kilometre rises quickly, because fixed costs and depreciation keep running.

Averages per car class

Choose a class to fill in realistic averages for purchase price, insurance, road tax in an average province, maintenance and consumption. Then adjust every field to your own situation. Your values are only stored on your own device.

Worked example

A compact petrol car bought for €24,000, driven for 5 years, then sold for €11,000, at 13,000 km a year:

That is about €0.50 per kilometre — more than three times the cost of fuel alone.

Official source: Nibud car costs · ANWB car costs

Calculate your monthly cost ↑

Electric or petrol: which is cheaper?

An electric car costs more to buy but less per kilometre. Whether it is cheaper overall depends mainly on how much you drive and where you charge. This comparison puts both cars side by side.

What we calculate for each car

• Depreciation — purchase price minus estimated resale value, spread over the months you own it. EVs lose value a little faster in the first years.
• Energy — kilometres × consumption × price. For the EV we blend home and public charging in the ratio you choose; at home a kWh often costs less than half the public price.
• Road tax — calculated exactly for the weight and your province. An EV pays 70% of the normal rate in 2026, but is often much heavier.
• Insurance and maintenance — an EV has no oil, timing belt or exhaust and brakes largely on the motor, so maintenance is usually cheaper.

The break-even point

Below the result you see from how many kilometres a year the electric car becomes cheaper. Drive less and the petrol car’s lower price wins; drive more and the cheaper kilometre wins.

Worked example

A €40,000 EV (1,900 kg, 16 kWh/100 km, 80% charged at home) against a €32,000 petrol car (1,300 kg, 6.2 l/100 km), 15,000 km a year, 5 years, Noord-Holland:

Here the EV is about €18 a month cheaper. The break-even point is around 13,000 km a year.

Official source: Belastingdienst — EV road tax · ANWB — charging costs · CBS — pump prices

Compare EV and petrol ↑