Company car taxable benefit, explained for small businesses

When an employee can use a company car privately, tax authorities treat that as income — and someone in your office has to produce the right number for payroll, every month, per car. Here is how that number is built, in plain language, for the countries TinyFleet supports. Nothing here is tax advice; it's the map that makes your accountant's answer make sense.

The universal idea

Every system answers the same question: what is the private use of this car worth per period? Most countries approximate it as a percentage of the car's value — usually the original catalog/list price, not what you paid — sometimes adjusted for CO2 emissions, fuel type, or the car's age. That amount is added to the employee's taxable salary; the employer reports it through payroll.

Anywhere in the world: the generic approach

If your country isn't listed below, your accountant will give you a monthly taxable value per car (from local tables, a percentage rule, or a logbook method). The work is then purely administrative: keep the figure attached to the right car and driver, and report it every month. That's exactly what TinyFleet's Generic pack does — you enter the monthly value once, and it flows into the monthly payroll export automatically.

🇳🇱 Netherlands — bijtelling

The Dutch add a yearly percentage of the car's cataloguswaarde (official list price including VAT and BPM) to taxable income, when private use exceeds 500 km/year.

• Standard rate: 22% of catalog value per year.
• Electric cars: new EVs get a reduced rate on the first €30,000 of value, standard rate above it — 17% in 2025, 18% in 2026, 20% in 2027, then gone from 2028. A car keeps its registration-year rate for 60 months from first registration.

Worked example: petrol hatchback, €32,000 catalog value: 22% × €32,000 = €7,040/year → €586.67/month added to taxable salary.

🇳🇱 Lees de Nederlandse gids: bijtelling bijhouden voor een klein wagenpark →

🇧🇪 Belgium — voordeel van alle aard (BIK / ATN)

Belgium computes the yearly benefit from the catalog value, the car's age, and its CO2 emissions:

Catalog value × age factor × 6/7 × CO2 percentage

• Age factor: 100% in the first year, minus 6% per started year, floor 70%.
• CO2 percentage: 5.5% at the yearly reference emission (published each year, different for petrol and diesel), ±0.1% per gram above/below, clamped between 4% and 18%.
• Legal minimum: a yearly floor (€1,690 for 2026) applies no matter how the formula comes out — EVs at 0 g/km typically land on the 4% minimum percentage.

Worked example: two-year-old diesel, €35,000 catalog, 120 g/km, 2026 diesel reference 58 g/km: CO2% = 5.5 + (120−58)×0.1 = 11.7%. €35,000 × 94% × 6/7 × 11.7% ≈ €3,299/year → ≈ €275/month.

🇧🇪 Nederlandstalige gids: voordeel alle aard opvolgen → · Guide en français : suivre l'avantage de toute nature →

What your monthly routine should look like

1. Keep a register of every company car with its catalog value, fuel type, CO2 and driver.
2. When a car, driver or rate changes, update the record the same day.
3. Every payroll run, export the per-car monthly benefit with driver and employee ID.
4. Once a year (January), check your country's new rates and update them.

TinyFleet does steps 1, 3 and half of 4 (the rates are one editable table). It's free for up to 3 vehicles — open the app and see your fleet's numbers in five minutes.