Repeat additional motor vehicle tax assessment during suspension

The suspension of a vehicle registration number comes with the deferral of the associated motor vehicle tax for the duration of the suspension, but also brings with it that the vehicle in question may not be used to travel on public roads until the suspension is lifted. If the driver ignores this and is caught in the act, he or she will be treated to an additional motor vehicle tax assessment.

The Tax and Customs Administration presented the holder of a particular passenger vehicle registration with an additional motor vehicle tax assessment after it had received word that the car had been travelling on the public roads while the registration had been suspended. The additional assessment was quashed owing to the inspector of taxes questioning the accuracy of the information the tax service had been provided with. However, a repeat additional assessment was slapped on the holder of the registration owing to it having been established that someone had been driving the car on a different date as well, of which fact the inspector of taxes had been aware at the time he quashed the first additional assessment. The Hague Court of Appeal promptly quashed the second additional assessment as well, arguing that it was not permissible under these circumstances to impose a second additional tax assessment in relation to the same period. This ruling did not sit at all well with the Supreme Court, which directed that it was most certainly permissible to levy a second additional motor vehicle tax assessment for the same period where said assessment related to a different incident than that which had sparked the quashed assessment.