Press Release: Car taxation: infringement procedures against Denmark and Finland

The Commission has sent Denmark and Finland formal requests to amend their rules concerning car registration taxes. These requests take the form of "reasoned opinions", the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. As regards the case against Denmark, the way registration tax is calculated on foreign company cars and leasing cars made available to a person living in Denmark means that the total amount of the registration tax will have been paid in full after more or less eight years of registration, thus resulting in a taxation which is not proportionate to the duration of the registration of the vehicle in Denmark. The case against Finland concerns the lack of an explicit rule establishing that a person who will only be staying in Finland for a limited time should be exempt from registration tax for his or her vehicle. Moreover, the Commission decided to refer Finland to the Court of Justice on the rules that applies for registration tax on second-hand cars. The Commission considers that the rules used to calculate the registration tax levied on second-hand cars imported from other Member States discriminates against them in comparison with similar Finnish cars.