Guy in Finland gets charged over 9000 EUR in tax for making his old beater van into an RV

An unemployed guy in Finland gets charged over 9000 EUR  in taxes for making his old beater van into a recreational vehicle.

Here's a link to the original article in Finnish, with pictures of the van and of the bill he got. Trafi, the vehicle tax authority in Finland, is starting to get itself quite a reputation.

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/autot/art-1288776672597.html

The van is just an average 1989 VW van. Niko Heinonen built benches for the back, which can convert to a bed. He told that he was not warned about these kinds of charges when he went to re-register the van. The van is worth probably max. 2K, yet he was charged taxes based on the price of a brand new van in 1989.

The car taxation in Finland is very high, and the system needs a lot of protectionism to prop it up. People in Finland have a lot of beaurocracy and fees to deal with when bringing a car into the country from another EU country. Germany is one popular shopping hot spot for Finns to buy used cars. The Finnish government has been in and out of EU courts several times for their car taxation schemes. I suspect these recent cases similar to this one will probably end up there again. Cases include discriminatory taxation practices, charging VAT on top of tax, and so on. Many Finnish voters were hoping that joining the EU would bring this kind of thing under control.