It’s really possible to save a lot of money importing a car like this, and here in the Netherlands there’s not much information in English on the topic. In fact a lot of the information in Dutch is posted by Internet trolls and misleading, suggesting it’s illegal, difficult or you need to make use of an importer. In fact it’s very easy to do yourself, but is a little time consuming.
It may seem strange that in order to use a car purchased in Germany in The Netherlands the car has to be ‘imported’, but that’s still the reality in Europe. Actually, I think even taking a car from one US state to another can involve some red tape, and this probably isn’t so different. In fact I think this same process exists many places, which is why I thought I would post about my experiences.
Why Import a Car?
My top motivation was because I hate Dutch car dealers. They are such a scam. The country is small, and the few dealers that exist here all operate as a cartel. They use the excuse that when they themselves import a car they need to pay taxes up front, so they can only import cars that sell quickly. In fact it’s more like they only import cars that make them the most money. When you go to a car dealership, they will walk over to the car they want to sell you and if you don’t want to buy it they just shrug their shoulders.
In fact there are many colors not available here, because the dealers only want to stock very neutral colors. There are also many configuration options like large and/or diesel engines with cheaper interior trim levels, that don’t provide the dealers with enough profit. For some reason if you want a diesel engine here, you have to pay through the nose for it with a more expensive interior, and the dealers just think we have to accept that.
Besides many models of cars not being available, there are also very significant tax benefits to importing a used car. BPM is the Dutch tax you have to pay on all cars here, and if you import a car that’s for example 1 year old, you get at least a 30% discount. The sweet spot in this discount is about 18 months (at about a 40% discount), but even a car that’s just a few months old can save you a lot of money. An even older car qualifies for a larger discount, but the increase tapers off after 18 months. Before discounts, BPM tax can range from about €3000-10000, so getting a discount is very important.
When you import a used car you also pay the sales tax (VAT) in the country you buy the car, and in Germany this is 19%, while here in the Netherlands it’s 21%. This alone is a significant savings.
What is a Used Car and How to Find One
In the EU a used car is defined as one at least 6 months old, with at least 6000 km on the odometer.
The difficult thing about importing a brand new car is you need to pay sales tax (VAT) in your home country. That means, in theory, the dealer has to sell you the car without tax, and instead you have to pay this at home when you register the car. Since some people have found ways of not paying this tax at all, most dealers won’t sell a car to you in this way because they might end up being liable for this tax. It may be possible to pay an importer to import a new car for you, but it’s hard to do this as an individual.
If you are looking for a specific car, websites autoscout24.de and mobile.de offer a very large selection of used cars — but be careful! First of all do not believe the reviews on these sites, because negative reviews are blocked and removed. Just like anywhere, there is also a lot of fraud in Germany with used car sales. There are many bad dealers, especially the smaller ones. The RDW, the Dutch car regulatory agency reports that 1 in 5 odometers in imported German cars shows signs of tampering, and half of these have definitely been altered. Be particularly careful of cars that have been in accidents. By law all cars sold are supposed to come with a 1 year warranty, unless you wave this right, so be careful what you sign.
Most people without technical knowledge of cars will want to buy from a dealer that also sells new cars of the brand you are looking for. For example, I bought a used Skoda, from a Skoda dealer. In addition, be sure to research the dealer on the Internet. Look at websites like trustpilot or Google Maps, which have uncensored reviews. Many of these dealers are huge, and work on the basis of low commissions and high volumes, so it’s still possible to get a good deal from them.
Jahreswagen
This is a German word that Google Translate says means ’employee car’ in English. Actually, it’s more than that.
It turns out there are more people besides us looking for a high quality used car. In fact it’s a cultural thing in Germany, that some people don’t believe in new cars. The argument goes that a new car is too expensive, and many new cars have mechanical problems that emerge in the first year. They say it’s better to buy a 1 year old car, that’s cheaper and has all the kinks worked out.
So if all these Germans are looking for lightly used cars, and people like you and me are looking for lightly used cars to export, where do all these 1 year old used cars come from? The German car dealers have come up with a solution called a jahreswagen. As a work benefit, they give new cars to their employees to drive for a few months, then return to the dealer. Since they need to be resold, they have to be driven carefully, kept in perfect condition, and are generally still under manufacturers warranty by the time you get them. These are several thousand euros cheaper than a new car, and fall under the legal definition of a used car.
The German car market is full of this sort of car. Almost every dealer carries them. This is a very good type of car to buy and export.
Don’t confuse this type of car with one that was a former rental car or taxi, which will certainly have been driven a lot harder.
Buying and Exporting the Car
When you buy a car, at least from a dealer, you generally first have to sign a purchase contract. Among other things this gives the dealer your permission to register the car temporarily under your name with the German authorities, and allows the dealer to arrange temporary liability insurance and export plates like the ones in the picture above. These plates are valid for either 14 or 28 days, and let you drive anywhere in the EU. The period of validity is indicated in the red area on the right. In this case the plates expired 1-aug-2018.
In the purchase contract you will also specify if you will pay by bank transfer or cash. If you are bringing the cash from The Netherlands on public transport, consider the safety of this first. Also here in Amsterdam there is significant crime in areas around banks that dispense large amounts of cash. Even if you do decide to pay in cash, be wary of dealers who only accept cash, because they are probably trying to dodge taxes.
If you buy your car from a private party instead of a dealer, unless the seller lets you keep the old plates, you will probably have to go yourself to the KFZ-Zulassungsstelle in Germany and arrange these plates. In this case, be sure you have arranged liability insurance in advance, or they won’t issue the plates. In any event, someone, either you or the seller, has to go to the KFZ-Zulassungsstelle and register the car as exported.
These plates are the subject of urban legends. If you read Internet forums in Dutch some people will suggest they are illegal in The Netherlands, or that people who live here can’t use them because they represent an evasion of Dutch road tax. This is all nonsense, they are issued under an EU directive and the Dutch authorities issue a similar plate themselves for exporting cars. They are 100% valid across the entire EU, regardless of the driver of the vehicle.
The EU has decided all EU residents have the right to buy a car in any other EU country and bring it home to use, and The Netherlands has to make this possible. This is simply the law.
Be careful, there’s a similar looking plate with a 5 day validity, that’s only valid in Germany. Using a 5 day plate to drive back to The Netherlands is at your own risk!
Importing and Registering the Car
Once back in The Netherlands you have to go to the Dutch counterpart of the German KFZ-Zulassungsstelle, which is called the RDW. In short, you need to check the opening hours of the office closest to you, then show up at least a half hour before that. Take a number, wait your turn, present all the paperwork for the car, get another number and wait for your car to be inspected. For an almost new car expect the inspection itself to take about 90 seconds, and another 15 minutes for the guy to do all the paperwork.
The RDW will confiscate all the registration related paperwork for your car, but will let you keep the license plates. This means it’s technically no longer legal to drive your car, but parking it on the street is no big problem. Remember your export plates have the expiration date in big letters on the front, so don’t drag your feet too long in the registration process, or you will probably have to find off street parking for your car.
If you go to the RDW in Amsterdam, on the other side of the N200 is a neighborhood with free on street parking! This is a good place to just leave your car for a week or two.
After you pass the inspection, you need to submit the completed tax forms. If you are organized enough to have filled these out in advance, there’s a dropbox at the RDW. Otherwise, you have to send them by mail, which takes an extra day or two.
The tax forms are not for the faint of heart. They take some time, and are all in Dutch. They are all online, in digital form, and can all be translated with Google Translate. Basically you can choose either the current rules for determining the BPM tax, or the ones in effect when the car was newly registered. You have to compute both of these. You also get a discount for importing a used car, and you can either base this on the actual depreciation or on their standard formula. Their formula is probably more advantageous, and if you accept it you don’t have to calculate the actual depreciation. There is also a space for you to state the catalog price of the car, which is the new list price less all taxes.
After you submit the tax form to the Customs/Tax Authorities, it takes about 2 days for them to process the form. About 5 days after you pay the assessed taxes, the RDW will complete the registration and send the registration card to you. With the registration card you can get plates made at most mechanics or lots of other places, and then you’re done! In total, this process takes about 5-7 working days.
Don’t forget to insure your new car.
Update 19 Dec 2018: Tax Forms
Some people have been sending me emails with different questions, but one concerned the rule of moving to the Netherlands and bringing your car as part of your household goods. In this case you don’t need to pay BPM. As far as I can see on the tax authority’s website, the procedure for this is pretty much exactly as I have already laid out here, but you have to file an additional form to ask for the exemption, which is also unfortunately in Dutch.
The form to ask for the moving exemption is here.
The general tax form that everyone has to file as part of registering the car is here.
These forms are in Dutch, but you can probably copy and paste the text into Google translate.
You probably need a Dutch taxpayer ID before you file any forms. This is called a Burger ServiceNummer or BSN.
I expect these links to change, so if the links don’t work don’t hesitate to send me a mail and I will track down the new links.
The tax authorities are not clear about when the form asking for the relocation exemption needs to be filed. It apparently can be filed before or up to 1 year after you move to the Netherlands. If you file it after registration, you will need to pay the BPM up front and get a refund later.
If you are asking for a BPM exemption, be sure to put it in perspective. For a new car the BPM can be around €6000-10000, but this goes down quickly with the age of the car. A 5-year old car is probably around €500, and if you have a car much older than that, it may not be worth asking for an exemption.
If you have any questions, for example about dealers or tax forms, please feel free to contact me via the contact link or leave a comment. nederlands kan ook
Hey there, great article. You mention that after 18 months, tax reduction falls off. I am planning to buy a car for around 10k euros but as I am trying to get a car from a good maker (vw, bmw etc) it is almost impossible to find something that is at most 18 months old. So my question will be, do you think I will be better off to buy something from the Netherlands? If so, do you have a suggestion to evade scammy dealers? Also as I will be in the netherlands for a couple of years, would I be better off with a private lease? Just want to get your thoughts on that too.
Cheers!
Hi Darrier,
What you’re talking about is really something different than this article. Once a car is about 5-7 years old the tax benefit converges to zero, so even a car that’s 2-3 years old may not be worth the trouble anymore. I mentioned autoscout24.de in the article, and there’s also autoscout24.nl. If there’s a particular car you’re interested in you could compare prices in the 2 countries. If it’s cheaper, you could consider buying it in Germany.
As a rule, in The Netherlands, a used car has a ‘dagwaarde’, day-value or market value. You have to determine what you think that is by comparing it to other similar cars on the market. The price that you actually pay for the car should be the ‘dagwaarde’ minus the costs of bringing the car to 100% good condition, both in terms of servicing and body damage. Since repairing body damage is expensive if you don’t care about it very much, you might find a good deal in a car with light body damage, but once a car is about 5 years old you probably have to accept a percentage discount for the body damage like 20-50%. You will almost certainly need the help of a mechanic to determine the cost of repairing the car, so I suggest looking for one before you buy the car. Consider choosing one near your house, that you can pay to fix the car after you buy it. A local mechanic may also know about cars in the neighborhood that may be for sale. It would be a real plus to buy a car the mechanic is familiar with, and can recommend.
Make sure you ask the buyer the condition of the car, maybe even on the phone before you go and look at it. If you or a mechanic find a lot more wrong with it, consider the person you are buying it from is not being very honest. Also, don’t buy a car that doesn’t have a valid APK (vehicle inspection), because it won’t be legal to drive. Be sure and ask how long the APK is valid for.
A good indication of dagwaarde can be found on the ANWB website, https://www.anwb.nl/auto/koerslijst#/kenteken, just enter the license plate number.
A dealer will certainly know all the tricks, and demand top dollar for cars they sell. If you just want to test drive some cars, a dealer may be easiest. You’ll probably get a better deal buying from a private party.
If at all possible, don’t just buy the first car you come across. Try to take some time, look at a few, and try to find a motivated seller. After you’ve looked at a few, you can look back and see if any of them are still on the market after a while, and maybe the seller will take a lower price. Expats are often motivated sellers, so a good way to find a car might be via other expats.
Lease cars are most often arranged through your employer, because there are tax benefits, and often a significant discount is negotiated. You’re unlikely to get a good deal via a private lease, but if you want to pay for trouble-free auto ownership the choice is yours. A large percentage of cars on the road are lease cars, and the concept of a private lease is sort of like for people who want to pretend they have a better employer and earn more money than they really do. I personally wouldn’t consider it a serious choice, but like I said it’s up to you.
I hope this helps… Good luck and best wishes on your time in The Netherlands.
Hey Patrick,
Thanks for your thorough answer. I also did not really consider the private lease but it felt like hassle free. I also agree that the prices are ridiculous for the leases so I’m better off buying a second hand car after all. Also if I agree to buy a car from Germany it feels like it might be impossible for a mechanic to check it so I might be better off looking in the neighbourhood. The only thing left is to find a mechanic then 🙂
Much Appreciated
Have a nice weekend.
Great article. Thanks a lot.
I am definitely going to explore this option. I do not see any reason not to. Still, I have a question regarding financing. Is there a possibility to arrange to finance a car purchasing with a Dutch bank?
Hi Bojan,
Good question. I’m not sure really, it probably depends a lot on your bank. Probably its not a problem if you have an account where you regularly receive your salary. You may also find an unrelated bank, but this is a lot more difficult now because privacy rules prohibit banks from exchanging a lot of customer information, so you don’t really have the same kind of credit history you do in other countries.
Hi Patrick,
I definitely decided to go this route. Financing should not be needed.
Still, I have a question regarding a tax. Could you share a figure how much it could be or for example in your use case how much it was. I noticed the formula, but difficult to make calculatio without real inputs. An example, a car of 10K eur, 2010, benzine 1.4 or 1.8, Euro 5.
Tnx
Bojan
Hi Bojan,
Remember the EUR10000 is the NEW catalog price, that is what the car cost when it was first purchased. It also makes a difference exactly what month in 2010 the car was first registered, so I assumed July and also assumed you would be filling out the tax forms in January 2019. What’s more important for the BPM is the number of g/km of CO2 in the exhaust of the car. For this I assumed 100 g/km, but you have the use the actual number.
I see the form on the tax office website is dated January 2019, and is completely different from the form I filled out. I also see the instructions are dated November 2018. Both of these have changed since I imported my car, and I assume they will change in the future.
I’ve filled out pages 6, 8, 9 and 19 of this form here. These show the actual calculations. This is just a best effort based on the information I have, and the experience I have importing my car.
You have to do three calculations. First the BPM as if your car was purchased new today (January 2019). Second what the BPM originally was when it was first registered. You choose the most favorable of these two, then calculate a discount using one of three methods (your own calculation of the depreciation of the car, publicly available lists of market value of your car or the tax office depreciation table), and I choose the tax office depreciation table. In your case the historic BPM calculation was more favorable, and based on the tax office depreciation table you are entitled to an 89% discount based on the age of your car.
For the calculations of BPM today, you need to use this table. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom to January 2019, you see several bands for CO2. For benzine 0-71, 71-95, 95-139, and so on. In your case, with CO2 g/km of 100, the 95-139 is what you use. For the first 95 g of CO2 you pay €1942, then €131 per g over that. 1942 + (5 x 131) = €2597. For BPM when it was first registered, you can use the table on page 8 of 20 (on what I filled out), and because the CO2 is less than 110 g/km you get 0% of the new price or €0.
Since the figure of €0 is more favorable, you use this. Just for the sake of showing an example, I’ll also calculate the discount. To calculate the discount you look at page 6 of 6 here, and since it’s exactly 8 years and 6 months it comes to 89%. For every month older than 8 years and 6 months your car is, up to 9 years and 6 months, you can deduct an extra 0,25%.
Based on this hypothetical calculation, you need to pay €0 in BPM.
As a rule, for most cars over 5 years old, BPM is €500 or less.
By the way, I welcome all comments on this. If there’s a better way or I made a mistake, I’d like to know. Also, I expect after a few months these links won’t work anymore. Feel free to ask me to update the links.
Great article,
Do you have any rough idea how much would be the cost to import a 2012 VW Tiguan 1.4 gasoline with around 80,000 km ?
Cheers
Mario
Hi Mario,
About 10% of the new purchase price, or €8000, whichever is less. This is just a rough estimate, you need to fill out the forms yourself for an exact number. It emits 170 g/km of CO2 which is quite a lot, and so expensive.
Patrick
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the very informative article.
My family and I are possibly relocating to the Netherlands this summer so I am starting to look into various aspects, cars included.
We have a March 2010 Honda CR-V which we could consider importing as part of our household goods to be BPM exempt.
However, we would like to change to a used Volvo XC90 earliest 2017 model 136g CO2 but we are less than 6 months until our likely moving time so it would not be BPM exempt if we changed the car now. Therefore, I have started to look at the price of this car in the Netherlands and Germany but something I am a little confused with…do you still pay BPM if you buy a used car within the Netherlands or is this only on brand new cars the first time they are ever registered in NL or if the car is imported from another country?
If we were to buy a used Volvo XC90 in the Netherlands is it only the sales tax that is additional? Also I see on autoscout24 under a cars price it says VAT deductible, does this mean the VAT still needs to be added?
Sorry if these are dumb questions but rules around tax are always a bit of a minefield!
Thanks for your time
Hi Kirsty,
In The Netherlands (and Europe) sales tax and VAT are the same thing, and are always included in the quoted consumer price. This is unlike the US where sales tax is additional and added at the time of the sale. This is also the same with BPM within the Netherlands, it’s always included in the quoted consumer price. BPM is a Dutch tax, so you pay this at the time of buying a car in the country or importing one. This is true for new and used cars. An individual selling a used car will have paid VAT and BPM when they originally bought or imported the car, and so these will be part of the value of the car when it is sold. With businesses it works differently, and B2B prices are often quoted without tax. I see in my log files you are in Portugal, but I’m just saying it this way so everyone reading this can understand it.
Without seeing the actual context it’s hard to be specific, but when a listing says VAT deductible, it means there is some way to ask for the VAT back, but probably not for a consumer. It also probably means you are paying the VAT in another country. For example, if you buy a new car abroad, you can generally recover the VAT paid in that country, because you have to pay the VAT again in the Netherlands. One way or another you have to pay VAT for any car you buy or register in the Netherlands, there is no legal way to avoid this.
A Honda CRV is an expensive car for tax in the Netherlands. Even if you avoid the BPM, you will have to pay a lot in monthly road tax. For this reason it’s not really a popular car here, and might be hard to sell. Since it’s an old car they may also demand you repair some things before being allowed to import it. You will also have to do (or pay someone else to do) a lot of paperwork that has to be done in Dutch. I suggest selling it before you come if that’s possible, especially if you don’t plan to keep it.
The Volvo is a good car to import. Because it’s a used car, even though you still need to pay BPM, you will get a nice discount, probably 30% or more. I suggest comparing the price of this car where you are now, and in Germany. Either buy it now, or import it from Germany after you get here.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for answering my questions so quickly.
That’s good to know that at least the prices I am seeing in the sites like autoscout24 are including sales tax and BPM, otherwise I was thinking it would be an additional 15k euros on top for both the BPM and sales tax.
Regarding our Honda although it is 9 years old it is still in very good condition and with only 104,000km but I understand it may be difficult to sell it in NL. With our move we should have a relocation company take care of everything as part of my husbands new job so the dutch forms shouldn’t be an issue. I will look into whether we keep it or not. I’m still trying to persuade my husband for the new car! (-;
I’ve been checking prices of Volvo XC90 here in Portugal and they’re 57k euro and upwards, plus since we would own it less than 6 months before importing we would not qualify for the BPM exemption so I guess this will take us well over 65k compared to 45k in Germany.
Something for my clarification, on a site like autoscout24 for cars in Germany the price is including sales tax but the BPM would need to be added? Does the BPM calculation table that you have included in a reply to Bojan take into account the 30% + discount or how/when is this applied? I’m also to assume if I look at autoscout24 listings for NL this is the complete price then including BPM and sales tax?
Sorry I just want to be fully clear in my head so I can compare prices correctly.
Many thanks
Kirsty
Hi Kirsty,
I did a quick estimate for Bojan in my head, and yes it included the discount. For an exact number you need to calculate BPM according to the rules when the car was first registered as new, then calculate BPM according to the present rules and choose the most favorable. One you have done this you can calculate the discount and apply this.
The exact number depends on a lot of things, including the exact month the car was originally registered as new, possible discounts for an ‘A’ energy label and so on, and the exact month you import the car. As I read the tax forms, the BPM for benzine (petrol) car hasn’t changed much since 2017, so in your case these should be almost the same. For a car with 136g/km CO2 the BPM should be about €2221 + (34 * 145) = €7151. The tables for this calculation are here. If you for example import a car that’s 1 year and 7 months old, the discount would be 41,917%. You can find the table of discounts on page 6 of 6 here. When you import the car, the total BPM that you would pay is €7151 – 2997 = €4154.
Note there will also be registration and inspection costs, and you may have to repair some things in the car. With such a new car repairs are unlikely, and other costs should be a few hundred euros at the most.
Like I’ve said before, the only expertise I have in this matter is I’ve imported one car myself. It’s possible I made some mistakes in the calculations.
Hello
After registering the car does the car get erased from the home country automatically and also fiscally or other paperwork needs to be filled out?
Thanks
Probably not erased, but the records need to be updated. Anytime you sell a car, you remain responsible for all fines, for example driving too fast, red lights, and so on, until the registration is changed to the new owner. Anytime you buy a car, the old owner will probably want to ensure it is changed to your name. In any case, even if the old owner doesn’t do this for you or with you, you probably want to do it yourself. At the time you do this, you can tell them you are exporting the car, and if necessary ask for export plates like the ones pictured in this article. I don’t think any country will allow you to register it for normal use, unless you’re a resident, so you will probably have to tell them you’re exporting it.
If by the time you bring the car back to your home country you haven’t changed it to your name, I can imagine they will want you to prove it’s been sold to you and not a stolen car. I don’t think you’ll be able to do this without registration in your name from the country of origin.
In Germany you can do all of this at the KFZ-Zulassungsstelle, or in The Netherlands the RDW, like I mention in the article. In other countries you have to figure this out yourself. As soon as it’s in your name, you will surely also have to start paying taxes on it, both in the original country and the new country. When I imported the car in this article, I paid €14 in road tax to the German authorities for the time it took to register in the Netherlands, then I started paying the tax here.
Dear Patrick,
First of all, thank you for your blog and your efforts proving these valuable information. I was looking around the net for information to import a second hand car from Germany to the Netherlands and found your article the the most precise, concise and informative.
I am still in the process finding the right car and mainly looking in autoscout.de. The car I have in mind is a Peugeot 207
SW Tendance 1.4 VTI, 02/2008, 70 kW 95 PK, 65.000 -100.000 km, 153 g CO2/km (gem.), Euro 4, Benzin, €35000 – €4000.
You mentioned cars that are 5 years old the tax payment would be around €500. I looked I up the attached BMP Tarieven to get an exact figure and It states for Benzin there is a “Verminder met € 1.442” which translates to “reduce by € 1.442”. I do not understand what they mean by that. Would you know how much the import tax for such a car would be? Is there a formular/calculation I can use? Would you also know approximately what the other costs of the KFZ Zulassungsstelle and costs in Netherlands for inspection, act are?
Thank you for your time.
Bader
Hi Badr,
The original BPM on a car from 2008 with more than 110g/km of CO2 is 43% of the original catalogue price, but this is reduced by 92% + 0,083% for every month older than 9 years and 6 months the car is at the time you register it. If the new calculation of the BPM is less than the original, you can use that together with the discount and pay even less. The BPM won’t be very much, but you have fill out the tax forms as I describe in the original article to find out exactly how much.
Verminder met € 1.442 means that after you calculate 43% of the catalogue price, you can subtract €1.442 from that.
What I said about being €500 or less was for most cars. Some cars will be more, for example expensive or polluting cars. Most normal cars that are 5 years or older don’t pay very much BPM.
I paid the German car dealer about €400 to register the car and get the export plates for me. This included liability insurance for driving the car. I paid the Dutch RDW about €150 to inspect and register the car.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you so much for your reply and the time you have taken writing it. Your answer has clarified my questions.
Take car and all the best with your Blog and other endeavours.
Best
Badr
HI Patrick,
this blog has so far been a massive help with this importing question. Can you just confirm that I understand this correctly? Im looking at importing a VW golf 1.4 model 2014/2015/2016.. I realise that month/year plus the co2 grams makes the biggest difference on the bpm calculation.
To confirm. I am using the depreciation stated in the value table here https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/cars/bpm/calculate_and_pay_bpm/depreciation_with_a_price_list_a_valuation_report_or_a_fixed_depreciation_table/depreciation-based-on-fixed-depreciation-table
so for example this golf registered in germany in november 2014 with co2 119g will have a depreciation of 62% + 4.5% (if i were to import it today) totals 66.5%
then i looked into their PDF that has the rules for bpm from 2014 and compare it to the rules in the same document from 2019.. I created a spreadsheet to calculate these two.
so if taking into account the rules of 2014 is “88g – 124g” is 0 + €105 for every gram above 88?
so in this case it would be 0 as the flat sum plus 31 x €105 (as “my”car is 119 grams/km).
Total bpm before depreciation discount is €3255… then subtracting the depreciation discount of 66.5% i will get a total bpm of €1090?
If i use the 2019 calculation the flat sum for grams between 95-139 grams is €1942 + €131 per gram above 95
so i my case it would be €1941 + (24x€131 = €3144) a total bpm of €5086 before depreciation. Then subtracting depreciation of 66.5% gives total bpm €1703.
So obviously using the rules from 2014 saves me €600? Just my question to confirm, i can still subtract the depreciation of the vehicle also when i use the bpm rules from 2014?
When i go to the RDW with the vehicle, will they accept the vehicles co2 based on the CoC? As i can see it states that you have to prove the vehicles co2 emission, is this difficult?
The reason i want to purchase from germany is that i really want a vehicle with low milage and decent accessories and the selection on dutch websites are not very good. Plus i feel a lot of cars has gone very far for the amount they want for them.
I really wanted to nail this calculation down so that i know what cars i can look at from the german sites, as i have a max budget to stick with including the bpm and all that.
Hi Iselin ,
Thanks for thinking about everything so carefully before leaving the comment. Also, thanks for the link to the depreciation table in English. I hadn’t seen that before. The one on the tax form is in Dutch.
Yes, I think you are are calculating the grams of CO2 correctly. Yes, you can apply the same depreciation for the 2014 rules. When your vehicle is inspected they will determine the grams of CO2. After they inspect your car they will give you a list of ‘facts’ about your car, and these are supposed to agree with what you filled out on the tax form. I don’t think they ever started the motor in my car, so I think they determine most of these things from what the manufacturer says. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, because if you have your tax form filled out already on the day of the inspection you can submit it at the RDW, but obviously if you have filled it out differently from the inspection results, you will have to fix that and mail it in later.
Everything looks pretty good to me except I’m not sure about your depreciation. On the tax forms you are always allowed to round in your own favor. If the car is from Nov 2014, then I would count from from 1 Nov 2014 – 1 March 2019. 4 years and 4 months? I would do the depreciation as 62 + 7.5%. Am I misunderstanding something you said?
Good luck with the car!
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for confirming and taking the time to reply.
You are probably right about the depreciation. I wasn’t completely clear about exactly from what month to which i was allowed to count. ( so whatever gives you the most discount then :P).
I have actually found my final car now, just waiting to sort the purchase, transfer money and pick it up next week hopefully. Ended up with July 2015 119g co2. 🙂 So i will take into account the whole month of july 2015 until including february 2019 as i will import it this month?
Im working on translating that BMP tax form now, not the easiest no lol. But it seems the historical value is the best way to go.
I have a couple of more questions tho if you don’t mind 🙂 .
1. If i get the german version of the cars APK i can transfer this right?
2. I called RDW, they said i could book an appointment online, or just show up on the day but no guarantee of being seen. Do you know how long the average wait time for an RDW inspection appointment is if i book? ( I live fairly close to the amsterdam station near sloterdijk so its not that much stress if i go in person, just not sure how risky it is to be turned away?).
3. If i bring the german APK do i need to select inspection for APK as well when/if i book an appointment?
4. I will ask for export plates from the dealer lasting for a few weeks, the lady at RDW said they will take my plates when i show up at the station, but i think you stated that they wont take your actual plates with the expiry date so that its still possible to park on the street?
5. The day i drive to RDW do i need to buy a one-day dutch plate even tho i have the export plates?
6. Do you have any recommendations on specific places near Amsterdam that produces the plates ones i get them?
7. Finally, the car im buying is first registered in july 2015, however the “ModelJahr” is actually 2016. Will this have any impact on me choosing to calculate BPM on the 2015 values, as it is indeed when the car was first registered.
I was almost going to get the car imported by a dutch company, but its also fun to take the challenge and learn how to do it yourself + save the cash. This blog post really made it seem manageable. 🙂
Hi Iselin,
1. They will probably accept the German APK, but this is not guaranteed.
2. If you book an appointment online, I doubt you will get an appointment in February. They open at 8am, and I suggest you get there at 7.30. Be sure to go inside right away and take a number. They will probably call your number by 8.30, and then give you another number which is your place in the queue, and means they will inspect your car that day.
3. I don’t think they do APKs at the Amsterdam station. I think you need a mechanic for this. In any case, just go and see what they say. This is another chicken and egg issue, because I think your car needs to be registered to get an APK, but maybe they won’t let you register it without one? I don’t honestly know how this works.
4. I don’t think they will actually take the plates. They will take all the registration papers. It should be no problem to park it on the street, and there is free parking on the other side of the N200, look around the Doctor H Colijnstraat. If there are blue markings on the street that means parking is free but limited to 1 or 2 hours.
5. No, you shouldn’t need the Dutch 1 day plates. You will only need these if for some reason they take your German export plates, and then you will have a problem because you can’t park on the street with a 1-day plate. If you end up in this situation, you can take your car to http://www.stallingamsterdamosdorp.nl/ This is a place that specializes in storing cars off road, and will accept your car no matter what the status of it’s registration is.
6. The best place to get your new plates is your own mechanic, if you have one or can find one in the meantime. My mechanic is http://garagedelinde.nl/
7. Neither the RDW nor the tax office will care about the model year. Only the date first registered is important. The model year will be important when you get it fixed or have to order parts for it.
Hey there , (Patrick and Stephen )
The article was a worthy read. In a while, I have been looking for someone who can clear this up for me. To be frank, I still didn’t get to fully understand. i will lay my question below and I hope you can help me out. I live in the Netherlands and i bought my first car last year, from a Dutch private owner. a honda civic . all I paid was the sales price and the car was mine. I only pay the beslasting per quarter which is about 175 euros for 3 months.
The car I currently want to buy is the 2016 Peugeot 2008 1.2 vti, Petrol, Automatic, 47000 KM, price 12900 EUROS. From FRANCE. here is a navigation link to the car. http://www.ooyyo.com/france/c=CDA31D7114D2854F111BFB6FBAF0355BC6B11D78DEDC866ECF18E66DA9672252D4A23C71/5302126128291590262.html/ if its sold before I get to buy it, I will get another one but still of the same specifications.
So my question is, after spending 12900 to purchase the car from France, how much will I spend once I get to the Netherlands, to get a Netherlands license plate and have it registered at the RDW ??
Thank you and I will appreciate your response.
Clovis.
Hi Clovis,
It’s impossible for me to say exactly how much you would pay to register it in the Netherlands. For a car with 114g/km of CO2 from 2016 the BPM tax is about €2512 + ( 8 * 124 ) = €3504 – 1822 ( 52% for a 2,5 year old car) = €1682 total. In addition it will cost a few hundred Euros both here and in France for inspecting the car and changing the registration. For the exact number you have to fill out the tax form that is in Dutch. If you are unable or unwilling to do this yourself, you need to pay someone to do it for you, and it’s probably better to ask them what the costs will be.
Both in the original article and some of the comments above I talk about filling out the tax form. If you want to do it yourself, and have questions about it, you need to have a look at what others have said, then ask more specific questions.
Iselin (comments above) translated most of the BPM tax form into English, and sent it to me to share with everyone.
The tax office regularly updates the form, so it will probably change soon.
Hello, I am thinking of buying a diesel car from Germany – 2009 Mazda
159 g CO2/km (comb)
Emission Class
Euro 4
Emission Label
4 (Green)
Could you help me calculate the BPM for this car?
Also I live in the Netherlands and have BSN but I am from a different European country. Does this matter when buying the car and when registering it?
Also sorry for the second comment but what other cost will I have in order to register the car in the Netherlands?
Hi Mikhail,
A 10 year old car won’t be very much, probably a few hundred euros at most, because the BPM will be discounted by more than 90%. For the exact number you have to fill out the tax form. Registering the car here will cost about €150, plus you will need to register it first in Germany, probably for a similar amount. If the car doesn’t pass the inspection, and needs to be repaired, you will need to pay for this too.
I’m pretty sure in order to register a car here you need to be registered in the ‘Bevolkingsregister’, with the city where you live. Only Dutch residents are allowed to have a car here registered in their own names. I don’t think you need to be living here ‘legally’, but I’m not sure about that. You can ask the RDW about these things.
Hello, very helpful information! But i still have some questions. How does it work. I want to import a car from germany (2007 ford fiesta 1.3 petrol). The thing is i dont know how to do it. My mom she lives in germany , the car is also overthere at the moment without any number plates (not registered at all) what are the steps for me to get that car on dutch number plate? Is it better to register it on germany plate, bring it to Netherlands and then do it from there or shall we get those transit numbers which are valid only for 5 days? And also Do i need that BRP paper from Gemente as they said to me when i called rdw with this question? Sorry for my english.
Looking forward hearing from you! Thank you!
Hi Mykolas,
I don’t know all the answers to your question. I have only ever imported a car that already had a German registration.
The 5-day transit number plates are not valid in The Netherlands. If you want to use these, you have to also request a 1-day number plate from the Dutch RDW, which is not valid in Germany. You have to change plates as you drive across the border. It is probably easier to get the 14 or 28 day export plates in Germany, but you probably have to register the car there first.
Yes you must be officially registered in the same country you register the car. You must have the paper from the city where you live in The Netherlands if you want to register the car here. If you are registered as living in Germany or someplace else, you have to register the car there. If you drive a car in The Netherlands a lot that is registered someplace else, you might have trouble with the police here. They may demand you change the registration to The Netherlands. Also, if your car is not registered here, you probably won’t be able to register with your city for a parking permit, if where you are living has these.
You have to ask the RDW what papers you will need for a car that is completely unregistered. I don’t know this.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Hello Everyone,
I have decided to close comments on this post. I’m being asked the same questions over and over, and I think everything has already been covered here. If you still have some questions, feel free to send me a mail, but mails about the following won’t be answered:
How do I import a car from Germany or someplace else?
How much BPM do I need to pay?
What are the other costs?
The answers to these questions have already been answered here. Just look above.
Hey Patrick, i read your post on importing cars into Netherlands from other countries and saw that some folks were trying to translate all the forms from Dutch to English. When I moved to Netherlands a buddy of mine helped me with this website (https://autoimport.autotelex.nl/merk.aspx). If you go to the site, you can put all of your car information, built year, VIN etc and then it will ask you which BPM you would like to pay, Original year or current. Once you select that, for 20$ their online system fills out all the forms in dutch for you and lets you print it out and then all you have to do is mail it in and that’s it 😊
Hope it helps!