What is the pseudo payroll levy, and what does it mean for your fleet?

Where does the scheme come from?

The Dutch government wants to speed up the greening of the company car fleet. Part of that policy is a new levy for employers: the pseudo final levy on fossil-fuel company passenger cars (pseudo-eindheffing), in practice often called the "pseudo payroll levy". The scheme was announced in the Tax Plan and takes effect on 1 January 2027.

How does the pseudo final levy work?

The core of the scheme:

• If an employer makes a fossil-fuel passenger car (petrol, diesel, hybrid) available to an employee who is also allowed to use it privately, the employer pays a final levy of 12% of the list price per year.
• Unlike the regular taxable benefit, commuting counts as private use here. A "business" car that the employee drives home in therefore quickly falls under the levy.
• The levy is borne entirely by the employer and cannot be recovered from the employee.
• Fully electric cars are exempt. For existing fossil-fuel cars that were already made available before 2027, a transitional arrangement applies until September 2030.

Why does this affect pool cars in particular?

With a lease car with a regular driver, the situation is usually clear. But with pool cars it gets tricky: who used the car when, and was that business, commuting or private? Without watertight records, the Dutch Tax Administration can take the position that the car was also available for private use, with the levy as a result.

This is exactly where the link with car sharing lies: a platform that records to the day who uses which car when and for what gives the employer valuable input for its own tax substantiation. In Klicq, by the way, pool cars are only shared for business trips: private use of pool cars is not possible in the platform, and the borrower confirms this with every booking.

What does this mean for your fleet strategy?

1. Map which fossil-fuel cars are (or can be) used privately, including commuting. That is where the levy lands from 2027.
2. Speed up the switch to electric where it makes sense. EVs are exempt from the levy.
3. Arrange watertight records for pool cars, so you can substantiate that a pool car is used for business only.
4. Consider sharing instead of expanding. With benefit shifting, you get more mobility out of the (electric) cars that are already there.

What Klicq does and does not do here

To be clear: Klicq is not a solution for the pseudo final levy. Applying the rules and filing the return remain the responsibility of the employer and their adviser. What Klicq does do: record every shared use, business and private, per car and per user, with an unalterable seven-year audit trail. Those records feed payroll tax and VAT and are also usable input for your own reports and tax substantiation, including around this levy.