A new platform promises leasing without additional tax, which of course sounds like music to everyone’s ears.
We all know the timeline of recent cars that suddenly became extremely popular thanks to favorable additional tax. The time when 14 percent was really great for a Skoda Fabia Greenline. Then of course 0 percent (and then 4 percent) for EVs and PHEVs, which meant that suddenly everyone had a Mitsubishi Outlander fèf. And of course what is happening now with regard to additional tax on EVs, which means that additional tax is ultimately still considerable for cars that were previously advantageous.
Lease car without additional tax but private driving
How does additional tax work? In the end, you should see it as follows: you do not pay additional tax on the business kilometers you drive, i.e. commuting. Additional tax only comes into play when you start driving the car privately. Now, many people also want to drive the car in their free time, so then you pay additional tax, via your employer.
Can’t it be done differently? According to a new company called PlatformAuto it can also be done without additional tax. That is remarkable, because additional tax is always a hot topic here too.
At PlatformAuto, business and private driving are separated. Because the business lease car is not used privately, but is ‘made available’ by PlatformAuto to the driver by means of a subscription, you sideline the additional payment.
In other words, they really separate the business lease agreement that an employer enters into with the leasing company from a subscription that the employee enters into with Platformauto.
The basis is that the price of a subscription 6% of the catalogue value of the car. If you compare that with the 17% and 22% additional tax, then that sounds attractive.
This subscription entitles you to a number of kilometres in available cars that you can reserve. This will often be the car that is already in front of your door.
According to the company, this saves you around 2,500 euros per year, which you would otherwise have to pay in additional tax on a car worth 50,000 euros. This fleet of cars is a car-sharing system, so you always have to check via an app where and how you can use the private car in question.
This also sounds good for the leasing company, because they send an invoice for the same car to the employer and the employee also pays via Platformauto. Win-win?
Is that possible?
Now the question is of course: can this just happen? According to PlatformAuto of course it can, otherwise they wouldn’t have thought of it. You’re completely sidelining the Tax and Customs Administration, ‘which they’re not going to like’ according to CEO Wierd Meijering.
The press release arrived in our mailbox and we also frowned for a moment. Could it really be? Time to contact the people behind this initiative. We can already reveal that it is an interesting development, but that we are curious to see how the tax authorities will respond to this. In addition, you cannot click ‘subscribe’ at the moment, so it is still ‘work in progress’.
So we contacted Platformauto to ask some obvious questions:
How many kilometers can you drive for that 6% of the catalog value?
“For example, if in the current situation an employer leases a car for 40,000 total per year (business and private) and an employer agrees on 25,000 business in the new situation, the leasing company will create 15,000 km for us and our customers. That 15,000 is what we offer via our app. Our customers know how many km are included in their subscription before they take out a subscription.”
How does it work in practice, who has a contract with whom?
“The leasing company has a lease contract with the employer. The leasing company in turn lets us know for which cars we can offer a subscription to the employee of the car. We conclude a subscription with the employee based on a number of kilometers, the price is 6% of the catalog value of the car.”
But which cars can you drive privately?
“You can reserve the available cars and that can of course be the car that is parked at your house at the charging station. But it can also be a car with the same km price or lower in your neighborhood.”
Could someone run away with your car when you need it?
“You have a subscription based on kilometers, so you can ‘hold on’ to it for as long as you want.”
Have you also received approval from the Tax Authorities for this construction?
“No, but they wouldn’t give it to us if we asked for it. That sounds crazy, but we’ve been told by experts that the government won’t give that answer. But we’ve had our concept tested extensively by tax specialists and it meets all the requirements.”
Have there been any registrations yet?
“About ten people signed up immediately after the first messages, so we hope to conclude the first subscriptions within 2 weeks.”
Now tell me! Are you eager for a lease car without additional tax, or would you rather pay more to not have to think about anything?
Photo credit: BMW i5 next to a Mercedes EQS, via @benja01 on Car Whiz Spots.
