VW

I got a car! In the Netherlands, if you need a car with your job, your company provides you a lease car. They also take care of gas and insurance. But because you can drive the car for your private use, it is considered as a part of your salary. That means you are eligible for paying tax for the car.

As you are aware, tax percentage is determined based on your salary. This is the chart for tax brackets in the Netherlands (the figures are for 2004).

EUR 0 to EUR 16,893　= 34.15 %
EUR 16,893 to EUR 30,357 = 41.45 %
EUR 30,357 to EUR 51,762 = 42 %
Above EUR 51,762 = 52 %

Let’s say your applicable tax ratio is 40% to make it simple. Then, the calculation on your lease car's tax is 25% of the car value times 40%. So, if the car value is 20,000EUR, then the calculation goes like this.

20,000EUR (car value) x 25% x 40% (your tax ratio) = 2,000EUR

Therefore, you end up paying roughly 850EUR extra per month.

I think it is depends on the company, but you can chose which car you want to lease. But of course, if you lease an expensive car, your applicable tax for the car goes up. So you need to be careful when choosing a car by considering your financial situation.
On the other hand, if you have your own car, and you want to use it for work, then you are provided some extra cash as “car allowance”. So you are supposed to take care of your car from that allowance. It is about 300 – 400 EUR per month. Certainly it is costing less to your company if you use your own car, so they are happy to give you cash.

Regarding leasing a car for me, there was a problem; a parking space. In Amsterdam, you cannot just park a car on the street. Everything costs you. Actually, Amsterdam residents can get a parking permit from the city which is free. However, because of the number of applicants, my neighbor got it after 5 years of waiting. That’s just crazy. A parking lot costs about 3-4EUR an hour. Overnight, it is more than 40EUR! So, I had a talk with my company, and we decided that my company would lease a car under its name, and I would use the car whenever I need to. The rest of the time, I leave the car at work, so anyone else can use it. That means, I do not need to pay tax! I got a car! I cut the tax! And what’s even better, I got a navigation system. The navigation is really cool because I can take it with me when I walk around the city. I’ll never get lost ever again!

So I was up and down with this win-win situation… until I saw my car. well, it is a great car, but it’s stick shift, not automatic! Okay, I have a license to drive stick-shift, but I haven’t driven one for 10 years! Plus, I certainly have not dealt with a right-hand-side stick-shift!! Oh-boy…

… so, I took test drive yesterday. It is a bit different from Japanese cars (my mom’s car?). “R” is top-left and then “1” is right next to it. With my mom’s car, “1” is top-left and “R” is right-bottom. Anyways, in order for me to start rolling the car, I needed to put the gear on “1”, the second top from the left. Ready? Go! … nothing. Not moving… Okay. I put the gear in natural and put it in the right position, and then go! … nothing. I started wondering if I’ve started the engine. Yes, I have. Okay, now, I started wondering if I was not stepping on the gas enough. So I step on it harder… I hear the engine making bad sounds… okay, that’s not it. I was so nervous and decided to call my colleague. Then, he puts the gear all the way to the top-left, and says I’m good to go. I said, “Wait a minute! That’s R!” That is when he told me that in order to put the gear to the "R" position, I have to push the gear down and then put it to the top-left. Alright. Nothing says that on the stick!! But when I think about it, without this technique, it is too dangerous to have “R” and “1” right next to each other… I still learn things every day, just like a 2-year-old. Anyways, that is when I realized that I was trying to start with “3”. Of course, my car wouldn’t roll… (Only stick-shift drivers can understand my failure…)

Anyhow, my car started rolling, and despite of me being sooo nervous, I got home safely with my left leg almost having cramps. The next morning, strangely, I was more relaxed and I was a great driver already with a cup of coffee in one had! (Okay, it was a lot busier because my cup holder couldn’t hold my cup, and I still had to change the gear very often in a traffic jam on the highway.) I guess I had a virtual reality practice in my dream without knowing. Well, I almost got into an accident in the end, and this guy just stopped right next to me and gave me a “look”. But I was like “hey! I had my flicker on. You knew I was coming!!” and gave back the “look”! If the rest of the drivers are aggressive, then so am I!

Note: Do you see a flag in the map? That's my apartment!