If you move to a different country and want to take your car with you, you may not be able to do it without extra costs and paperwork. You should be aware that license plates and liability insurance may have to be changed. However, there are exceptions to this principle.
Time is crucial. There is a six-month limit for either completing additional formalities or leaving things unchanged.
If you stay abroad somewhere in the European Union for less than six months, you do not need to report your plans to use your car in another country. However, if you move for more than six months, EU regulations require that you reregister your vehicle, sign a new insurance contract and often pay tax for your new place of residence.
Even if an employee on a one-year work contract abroad wants to use their car, the obligation to reregister remains in effect. It is worth deciding about this before the aforementioned six-month time limit expires, because then you can count on a registration tax exemption.
The official European Union portal warns car owners that even if we decide to move for less than six months, after the official registration of our stay, we can expect a claim for "payment of the road tax related to the use of the car in that country". If the user has not opened a bank account in the country where they stay during their time abroad, he can use, quick and cheap money transfers from Conotoxia.com, where he can take advantage of 24 of the most popular currencies.
The obligation to reregister your car does not apply to students. Unless they find a permanent job. Even if they move to another country within the European Union for several years to obtain a foreign degree, they can drive a car registered and insured where they live permanently. The only exception in the EU is Denmark, where even students are obliged to register and insure their vehicles under the legal regulations of this country.
List of required documents
Several documents are required in order to reregister a used vehicle within the EU. The following are useful: EC certificate of conformity, registration card, insurance card, vehicle ownership card, VAT card, road traffic admission card - confirmation of the completion of a successful technical test.
Fee rates vary across the EU. For example, in Poland, the registration of a car imported from abroad with a vehicle card issuance costs about 250 PLN, and a technical inspection costs 98 PLN (a car without LPG). In addition, you have to pay tax, excise duty and insurance. Meanwhile, in Germany, for example, a technical inspection alone costs 100 EUR, which is the equivalent of approximately 428 PLN, according to the exchange rate at Conotoxia on June 11th, 2018.
The list with the higher expenses will not close after all the necessary formal requirements have been completed. Fuel in many EU countries also costs more than in Poland. One litre of unleaded petrol in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark or Italy costs 6-7.5 PLN per litre. People who use gas powered cars, may face extra additional expenses abroad. LPG stations are not so popular across the whole of the EU, which means filling up may be necessary even if it isn’t planned.
I live here and work there
Sometimes border residents cross the border every day on their way to and from work. Although they are regular road users in another country, they are not subject to the obligation to reregister their vehicle. What matters is not where they are employed, but where they live. It is there that the formalities of registration, insurance, technical inspections, etc. must be completed.