Buying or selling cars across Sweden’s border
If you are buying a car in another country, you may have to pay customs duty, VAT and any other taxes and charges. You may have to notify Swedish Customs if you are selling a car.
Rules in different cases
Buying a car from another EU country
Notifying Swedish Customs
No.
Paying charges
New car – yes, Swedish VAT. Old car – no.
Buying a car from a country outside the EU
Notifying Swedish Customs
Yes, and you must present an invoice, proof of foreign registration, etc.
Paying charges
Yes. Customs duty and VAT calculated on the invoice value.
Selling a car to another EU country
Notifying Swedish Customs
No.
Paying charges
No.
Selling a car to a country outside the EU
Notifying Swedish Customs
Yes, you must notify exportation of the car.
Paying charges
No.
Buying or selling a car outside the EU
Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) in cars
When you buy or sell a car outside the EU, there are rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases that you must follow. These are called F-gases and are chemicals that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The aim is to reduce emissions by phasing out the sale of products and equipment containing F-gases.
What do I need to know and do?
There is already a sales ban on many different goods. This also means that they are prohibited from being brought into or out of Sweden.
Goods that may be covered when buying a car include:
- Cooling equipment
- Air conditioning systems.
What you need to do
Before you reach the border:
- Find out what refrigerant is used in the car and whether it is covered by the F-gas regulations. You can do this by checking the product description or an excerpt from the car's technical specifications or instruction manual.
- If the car is covered by the F-gas regulations, you need to obtain an EORI number and register in the EU-wide F-gas portal. You need to do this even if you use a customs representative to handle your customs clearance.
At the border:
- Inform Swedish Customs of the cooling medium used in the car.
Buying a car outside the EU
If you buy a car from a country outside the EU or outside the EU’s fiscal territory, you must always pay customs duty and VAT. On crossing the border, you must give notification of the vehicle to Swedish Customs at the nearest customs clearance office.
All customs clearance offices in Sweden
EU’s fiscal territory – the Swedish Tax Agency (in Swedish)
So that Swedish Customs can calculate the charges and clear the vehicle through customs, you must be carrying the following:
- Purchase invoice
- Purchase document
- Receipt or other document corroborating the vehicle’s value
- The foreign proof of registration
Charges
The customs duty on motor vehicles varies. On private cars, it is 10%. The VAT is 25%. As a private individual, you pay all the charges to Swedish Customs.
Swedish Customs calculates the customs duty on:
- The purchase price
- Freight charges
- Insurance
- Handling costs you have incurred in connection with transport to the EU’s border
Swedish Customs calculates the VAT on the elements above (i.e. the purchase price, freight charges, insurance and handling costs you have incurred in connection with transport to the EU’s border) inclusive of the customs duty.
If the vehicle fulfils the requirements to be classed as a collectable car, you do not have to pay customs duty, just VAT at 12%.
Declare your import yourself
If you choose to handle your customs declaration yourself, you can provide the information on a form and lodge it at a customs office where a customs officer will help you enter the declaration into our import system.
Data for manual customs declaration import pdf, 162.1 kB.
If you have several different types of goods, you may also need a continuation form.
Data for manual customs declaration Import - Supplement sheet pdf, 135.6 kB.
Use our guide to know what to write in the different fields of the form.
Guide for manual customs declaration for imports (in Swedish)
Selling a car outside the EU
If you are selling a car to a person in a country outside the EU, you must, before the car can leave Sweden, notify its exportation to Swedish Customs.
You submit the exportation notification to the nearest customs clearance office along with details of the exporter (e.g. personal identity number and address). The car must be available for any checks.
A person buying a car may get a customs duty reduction in the country the car is being imported to
A person buying a car may get a customs duty reduction in the country the car is being imported to
If the buyer of your second-hand car wishes, you can, before the car is exported, obtain exportation declaration documentation. This may make it possible for the buyer to get a customs duty reduction in the country the car is being imported to. This is dependent on the car being of EU origin and the general agent or manufacturer being willing to issue a supplier declaration corroborating this. Thus, it is not enough that the car was made in the EU. To be of EU origin, it must fulfil certain rules of origin.
This is what you do:
1. Contact the general agent or the car’s manufacturer and ask if they can issue a supplier declaration. Remember that what either the general agent or the manufacturer certifies is that, when new, the car was of EU origin.
Read about supplier declarations here (in Swedish).
2. When you have a supplier declaration, you can buy and complete a goods movement certificate (EUR.1). This shows the car’s origin.
Complete the goods movement certificate (EUR.1) (in Swedish)
3. When you have completed the goods movement certificate, you must ensure that it is stamped by Swedish Customs when the car is being exported. You have to take along the supplier declaration and also explain whether, or to what extent, the car has been renovated or repaired.
Note!
The EUR.1 goods movement certificate is not an automatic qualification for a customs duty reduction. The goods movement certificate can help the car’s buyer to get an eventual customs duty reduction in the country the car is being imported to provided that there is a free-trade agreement between the EU and this country.
The EUR.1 goods movement certificate can be bought from Lamanica Logistikservice AB/Industrilitteratur.
If you want to buy a car tax-free for export (i.e. get back the VAT on goods that you export to a country outside the EU), you must contact a car dealer.
Declare your export yourself
Single Administrative Document
Declaration guide for export declarations on paper (in Swedish)
Buying or selling a car in another EU country
If you are buying a car in another EU country and, under the Swedish Tax Agency’s rules, the car is classed as new, you must, in certain cases, pay VAT in Sweden.
Read more about the rules when buying a car – the Swedish Tax Agency
If you are selling a car to a person in another EU country, you do not have to notify Swedish Customs of this.
Remember that you must deregister your car from Sweden’s car registry.
Read more about deregistration – the Swedish Transport Agency
Is the country part of the EU?
If you are unsure whether the country you are trading with is an EU Member State or not – here is a list of all EU countries.
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Contact the Swedish Transport Agency when you sell or buy a car to or from another country. They will answer questions about registration, vehicle tax, registration plates, vehicles as relocation goods and vehicle origin checks.