Dutch households spend a similar percentage of their income on running a car no matter what they actually earn, according to new research by the government’s macro-economic think-tank CPB on the impact of car-related taxes.

Low income households with a car spend an average of 6% of their income on car tax, while rich households, which buy more expensive vehicles, spend 4%, the CPB said on Tuesday.

Taxes account for some 40% of the cost of running a car.

The CPB figures, based on 2022 charges, also show people living in rural areas spend a larger proportion of their income on running a car than city dwellers.

Taking the total population – both car and non-car households – into account, people in the countryside spend an average of 5.2% of their income on a car, compared with 4.4% of city dwellers.

The research shows that “cutting the current taxes on cars would not be more beneficial to low income households as a whole than for high income households,” the CPB said.