Importers will become the taxpayers for the bpm, according to a memorandum of amendment to the Tax Plan 2021. With this, State Secretary Vijlbrief of Finance is fulfilling the earlier promise that customers will not be taxed twice as a result of the procedural change.
The memorandum of amendment therefore means that from now on it is not the dealer, but the importer that bears the tax liability for the bpm. The person who registers the vehicle will bear the tax liability instead of the registered person. This also means that dealers no longer bear the risk of bpm should their importer go bankrupt. In the bankruptcies of Rover and Kroymans, dealers paid the bpm twice because they had already paid the amount to the importer, but the Tax and Customs Administration came to reclaim the final ascription. Dealerships will no longer run that risk, explains the Bovag. The memorandum of amendment does not change anything for the import of used cars: it will therefore no longer be possible to debit bpm in the period between registration and registration.
In September, the Bovag reported that a procedural change in the handling of the bpm payment could potentially have a detrimental effect on customers of car companies. In the new situation, the bpm is no longer a ‘recurring item’ for car companies, so it seemed for a while that the bpm amount had to be added to the basic sales price. In that case, the consumer would also have to deduct VAT on the bpm amount. Wrongly, according to the Bovag, after which the interest group for car companies raised the issue. As a result of this, VVD MP Helma Lodders asked parliamentary questions about this issue. State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief of Finance then made the promise that the customer would not be the victim of this measure. He has kept his word with the memorandum of amendment.