Motorrijtuigenbelasting: how Dutch car tax (MRB) actually gets calculated

Every Dutch car owner pays motorrijtuigenbelasting, MRB for short, every quarter, and almost nobody can tell you why their number is what it is. It isn't a flat fee and it isn't based on your car's price. It's built from three things: how heavy your car is, what it runs on, and which province your address falls in. Here's how those three actually combine into the amount that gets debited from your account.

Easy to mix up, genuinely different taxes. BPM (belasting van personenauto's en motorrijwielen) is a one-off registration tax you pay once, when a car is first registered in the Netherlands, based mostly on CO2 emissions. MRB is the recurring quarterly tax you keep paying for as long as you own the car. Our car tax calculator is specifically for MRB. If a plate lookup shows a BPM figure, that's just the RDW's record of what was paid once at registration, not something you owe again.

MRB is charged in weight bands based on your car's empty weight (massa ledig voertuig, the figure on your kenteken), not the weight with passengers or cargo. Each band steps up the rate, so a car 100kg heavier than yours can genuinely cost more per quarter, even with the identical fuel type and province. This is also why the calculator pulls your car's exact weight from the RDW registry the moment you enter a plate, instead of asking you to estimate it.

The national base rate has separate columns for petrol, diesel, and LPG, and diesel is taxed noticeably higher than petrol at the same weight, to roughly offset diesel's lower fuel duty at the pump. Hybrids are taxed the same as petrol. Fully electric and hydrogen cars get a 30% discount on the tax through 2026, 2027, and 2028, paying 70% of the equivalent petrol rate, a policy that then narrows to a 25% discount for 2029 before the discount disappears entirely from 2030. See Ondernemersplein: langer korting motorrijtuigenbelasting elektrische auto's for the official phase-out schedule.

Each of the 12 provinces sets its own opcenten surcharge on top of the national base rate, which is why the same car costs a different amount depending on where you're registered, not where you actually drive. It's a real difference, but at typical passenger-car weights it's smaller than people expect: for that same 1,551kg petrol car, the cheapest provinces (Noord-Holland and Overijssel) charge €280 a quarter, while the most expensive (Zuid-Holland) charges €306, a gap of about €104 a year. Worth checking if you're about to register an address change anyway, not usually worth moving house for on its own.

Type in your Dutch license plate and the car tax calculator pulls your exact weight and fuel type straight from the RDW registry, no guessing required. Pick your province (or let it detect one from your location), and you'll see the official quarterly amount, the annualized cost, and a full ranking of what the same car would cost in every other province, in case you're weighing a move.

Is MRB the same as BPM?

No. BPM is a one-off tax paid when a car is first registered, based mainly on CO2 emissions. MRB is the recurring quarterly road tax you keep paying for as long as you own the car, based on weight, fuel type, and province.

Why does my province affect my car tax?

Each of the 12 Dutch provinces sets its own opcenten surcharge on top of the national base rate. It's a real but usually modest difference, on the order of tens of euros a year at typical passenger-car weights.

How much MRB discount do electric cars get in 2026?

A 30% discount, so a fully electric or hydrogen car pays 70% of the equivalent petrol rate through 2026, 2027, and 2028. The discount narrows to 25% in 2029 and is scheduled to end entirely from 2030.

Why is diesel MRB so much higher than petrol?

Diesel is taxed at a higher rate in the MRB tables, at the same weight, to roughly offset the fact that diesel fuel itself carries lower duty at the pump than petrol. The gap is usually close to double at comparable weights.