5 seat tax evader BX Break project for sale in Finland

[rmattila]

Once upon the time the Finnish tax boundary conditions were as follows:

If you buy a car, you must pay 127 % tax on top of the CIF price. And if the car has a diesel engine, you must in addition pay an annual tax of the order of 300-400 eur (depending on the gross weight) to compensate for the lower tax on the fuel.

However, if you remove the back seat and increase the boot volume by a certain amount, you avoid the 127 % tax and pay only 1/6:th of the annual diesel tax (hence the high-roof Bx Vans).

Furthermore, if you already have paid the 127 % tax, you can later on convert the car into a van by taking the rear seat off. You won't get your money back, but are eligible for the lower annual diesel tax in the future. Up until 1998 it was possible to put a deliberately uncomfortable back seat into these "late converts": the maximum cushion thickness was 3 cm, and there were some rules concerning the inclination of the back support etc. (No spikes were required on the seats, but I bet someone at the tax authorities had certainly considered such a requirement too..) However, the main goal was reached: you can get a 5 seat car (although only 2 of the seats are comfortable) running on low-tax diesel fuel, but with the lower annual diesel tax of the order of 50 eur.

The law changed in 1998, and the possibility to add the hard rear seat was removed. However, due to sloppy formulation of the law, there remained a narrow loophole until 2007 to utilize the possibility. My Wife's Break went through this baptism into Van category in 2005. Since 2007, it is apparently no longer possible to make new low-tax cars with more than 2 seats, and the old ones are getting rare.

Now there's one for sale in northern Finland with a broken engine - asking price is 350 euro. I really hope it will find a dedicated new owner, since these are getting rare, and it would be a shame to let a hard-earned opportunity to tax evasion get lost due to negligence..

[Mothman]

Well, buy it quick then!!!

Andy