Buying or selling cars in another country
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.
Outside the EU
F-gases and ozone-depleting substances
When buying or selling a car outside the EU, there are rules regarding substances that affect the greenhouse effect or the ozone layer that you must follow:
- Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases)
- Ozone-depleting substances (ODS)
The aim is to reduce emissions by phasing out the sale of products and equipment containing the substances.
What do you 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:
- Refrigerators
- Fire extinguishers
- Air conditioning systems.
What you need to do
Before you reach the border:
- Find out whether there are any items in the car that are covered by the regulations on F-gases or ozone-depleting substances. 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 regulations, you will need to obtain an EORI number and register with one of the EU-wide tools: the F-Gas Portal or the ODS Portal. You need to do this even if you use a customs representative to handle your customs clearance. When you submit a tax return, you do so as a private individual and should use your own social security number instead of your EORI number. You must include the registration number you have been given via the F-Gas portal or the ODS portal in the tax return you submit.
At the border:
- Inform Swedish Customs the goods covered by the rules for F-gases or ozone-depleting substances used in the car.
Buying or selling cars outside the EU
Buying cars
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 cars
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.
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.
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.
Declare your export yourself
The Single Administrative Document (SAD)
Declaration guide for export declarations on paper (in Swedish)
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.
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.
You might also be interested in
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.