When can you deduct VAT on a car?
If you use a car for your business, you may deduct the VAT on expenses such as maintenance, fuel and use, to the extent that the car is used for taxed turnover. In doing so, you make a choice for VAT purposes, separate from the choice for income tax:
- you count the car as business assets, or
- you keep the car in private assets.
If you opt for company assets, you may deduct the VAT on purchase (if applicable), maintenance and use. If you also use the car privately, you must make an adjustment for private use at the end of the year. If you keep the car privately, you may not deduct the VAT on the purchase and the deduction on running costs is limited.
Is commuting business or private for VAT purposes?
For VAT purposes, the Tax Authorities consider home-to-work travel as private use. This concerns the kilometres from your place of residence or stay to a fixed workplace and back again. This is an important difference from income tax, where home-to-work travel for entrepreneurs is business-related. Because home-to-work travel is private for VAT purposes, it counts towards determining the private use of the car and affects the VAT correction you must apply.
Calculating private use with mileage records
Do you keep comprehensive mileage records? Then you can accurately calculate the private use of the car. In these records you record, among other things:
- starting and ending mileage
- date and purpose of the trip
- whether the journey is business or private
Based on this, you determine the ratio of business to private mileage. The VAT correction is then calculated based on this actual private use. Other related data from your administration can also substantiate the actual use. Just a loose estimate is insufficient. Read how you keep mileage records.
Calculating private use without mileage records
If you cannot deduce the private use from your records, you use a flat-rate percentage of the list price including VAT and BPM:
- 2,7%: in the case of a purchase with VAT deduction, in the year of first use and the four subsequent calendar years.
- 1,5%: afterwards, or if you did not deduct VAT upon purchase, for example with a margin car.
These are calendar years, not precisely 60 months from purchase. Flat-rate rules also apply to leasing; check the date of first use and your lease type. If used for part of the year or partly for exempt turnover, you adjust the amount pro rata.
Report the adjustment in the private-use section of the final VAT return for the financial year. The 500-kilometre limit for benefit-in-kind addition for income tax does not provide an exemption from this VAT adjustment.
Maximum VAT correction for private use
Also check the maximum. In the four years following the year of purchase, this consists of the VAT deducted on maintenance and use in that year plus one-fifth of the deducted purchase VAT. Later than four years after the year of first use, or in the case of a purchase without VAT deduction, the maximum is the VAT deducted on maintenance and use for that year. Do not apply the purchase rules to every lease structure without checking.
Margin car example: you use the car throughout the year for both taxable business activities and private purposes. No VAT was deducted on purchase. The list price is €40,000. The flat-rate adjustment is 1.5% × €40,000 = €600. If you deducted only €450 of VAT on maintenance and running costs that year, the adjustment is capped at €450.
The Tax authorities provide the calculation and exceptions for private use of a company car, including situations involving a personal contribution.
Which method best suits your situation?
With substantiated usage data, you can base the correction on the actual private use. Without that data, you use the applicable statutory flat-rate percentage. Therefore, collect your purchase or lease data, deductible VAT and usage data before the final return. This way, you can check the method, period and limitation.
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