A car with 5,000 km on the clock is legally new, and that is how you end up paying VAT twice
Six thousand kilometres is a legal border, and it sits inside the odometer of every bargain abroad
Buying a car in another EU country is a single market right, and the price gaps that make it worth doing are real and persistent, because national taxes, discount cultures and model mixes differ far more than the cars themselves do. The trap is not the car. It is a definition. For VAT purposes a car counts as new if it has done no more than 6,000 km, or if it was supplied to the owner within six months of its first registration. It only becomes used when both conditions are met: more than 6,000 km and more than six months past first registration. That single line decides who gets your money. A legally new car is taxed in the country where you register it, at that country's rate, on the full purchase price, no matter where you bought it. A used car bought from a private seller carries no VAT at all when you bring it home. A used car bought from a dealer usually falls under the margin scheme, where the VAT is baked into the price, is not shown separately on the invoice and is not reclaimable by you. The awkward case is the one that looks like the best deal on the screen: the demonstrator, the pre-registered stock car, the ex-management car with 4,000 km and eight weeks on the plate, advertised at a used price with the local VAT already inside it. That car is legally new. If you pay the VAT-inclusive price abroad and then register it at home, your own tax office will charge VAT again on the whole amount, and you are left reclaiming the first payment from a dealer in another country who has no particular urgency about it. The fix costs nothing and has to happen before the money moves: tell the seller in writing that the car is going to be registered in another member state, so the invoice is issued without their VAT. And since the whole rule turns on an odometer reading, it is worth remembering how easy that number is to change on a used car.
The certificate of conformity is free exactly once, and that once belonged to the first owner
Every car type-approved in the EU has a certificate of conformity, the document that proves this individual vehicle was built to an approved type and carries the technical figures a registration office needs to fill in your new registration certificate. Article 36 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 tells manufacturers to issue one with every vehicle, to describe the main characteristics and technical performance in concrete terms, to design it so it cannot easily be forged, and to deliver it free of charge to the buyer together with the vehicle, without making delivery conditional on a request. Read that again: free of charge, to the buyer, with the vehicle. That buyer was whoever took delivery of the new car, and on a car that has since had three owners and a house move, the paper is very often gone. A duplicate comes from the manufacturer or the national importer, it is chargeable, and the going rate across Europe runs from roughly 70 to 250 euros depending on the brand, rising steeply for low-volume and premium marques, with a wait of one to three weeks. That wait is the reason this belongs at the start of a purchase rather than at the end. Ask to see the certificate before you agree a price, and if it is missing, make the duplicate a condition of the deal and let the seller pay for it. One thing has changed very recently and it changes the question you ask: since 5 July 2026, manufacturers are exempt from issuing the paper certificate where they instead make it available as structured data in electronic format. On a very new car the correct question is no longer where the paper is, but which portal holds the electronic record and how your registration authority pulls it. If no certificate exists in any form, registration is still possible through an individual approval inspection, but it costs more, takes longer and is the slow road. The figures on that certificate are the same ones that end up in the coded fields of your registration document, which is worth knowing how to read before you hand anything over.
Your new country has to accept the roadworthiness test your old one did
Periodic testing is harmonised across the EU by Directive 2014/45/EU, which sets the minimum rhythm in Article 5: for passenger cars and light vans, the first test four years after first registration and every two years after that. Individual countries are free to test more often, which is why the interval you are used to may be annual. The part almost nobody quotes is Article 8, paragraph 3, which says that where a vehicle is re-registered, each member state shall recognise the roadworthiness certificate issued by another member state as if it had itself issued that certificate, provided the certificate is still valid. In plain terms, a car with a live German or French test does not automatically need a fresh national test the day you register it at home, and if a counter tells you otherwise, that provision is the one to cite. Two limits are worth understanding before you rely on it. The certificate has to still be valid measured against the destination country's own frequency rules, so a two-year certificate can be cut short by a country that tests annually. And recognition covers the periodic roadworthiness test, not everything else: countries keep their own identification check, matching the VIN on the car against the certificate of conformity and the foreign registration document, and they keep the right to insist on national conformity items such as headlight beam pattern, rear fog light position or a speedometer that reads in the local unit. If your car is close to its test date anyway, the pre-test check that stops it failing first time is twenty minutes well spent before you travel.
Registration tax is not VAT, and there is no European rule about it at all
This is the number that turns a good import into a bad one, and the reason it surprises people is that there are no common EU rules on vehicle registration and the taxes attached to it. Each country invents its own, and the spread is enormous. Germany charges essentially nothing to put a car on the road beyond a modest annual tax. The Netherlands applies BPM, a registration levy driven hard by CO2. France runs a purchase malus on the same basis. Belgium taxes on a mix of power, emissions and age. Denmark has historically been the extreme case. The consequence is that the German price advantage on a large petrol SUV can be wiped out, and then some, by a CO2-based registration tax at home, while the same advantage on a small efficient car survives intact. The saving grace is that these taxes are calculable in advance rather than discovered at the counter: every national tax authority publishes the formula or a calculator, and the inputs are all on the foreign registration document, namely CO2 figure, fuel type, power, first registration date and the age-based depreciation table. Run that number before you book the trip, not after. Two further timing rules catch people out. Most countries offer relief or exemption from registration tax when you move your residence permanently and bring your own car, usually conditional on having owned and used it for a period, commonly six months, before the move. And there is a deadline at the other end: national rules can require you to re-register within as little as one month of establishing your main residence, with real fines for missing it. Meanwhile the road tax and insurance obligation in the country you bought from keep running until the car is formally deregistered there, which is your job and not the seller's.
Getting it home is a separate legal problem with its own plates
The last thing anybody plans is the 900 kilometres between the seller's forecourt and your own street. Driving away on the seller's plates is usually not an option, because the registration and the insurance behind those plates belong to the seller and end with the sale. Every country has an answer, and the answers differ. Germany issues an Ausfuhrkennzeichen, an export plate, white with a red bar down the right side showing the date it expires, obtainable at any vehicle registration office rather than only in the seller's home town, valid for a period you choose up to a maximum of a year, and requiring both parts of the registration certificate, a valid technical inspection and a dedicated export liability insurance whose cover runs for the whole validity of the plate and applies across Europe and the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Belgium has transit plates, the Netherlands its own export registration, and most other member states something equivalent. The common thread is that the car generally has to still be registered in the origin country when you apply, which means the paperwork happens with the seller present, not after you have shaken hands and left. Price the alternative honestly too: on a car under about ten thousand euros, a transporter often costs less than the export plate, the special insurance, the fuel and two days of your own time, and it removes the risk of a mechanical failure in a country where you have no cover. If you do drive it, remember the road itself has rules that change at each border, including the vignettes and emission stickers that catch out more drivers than the paperwork does.
What to actually do
The order matters more than the effort. Almost everything that goes wrong on a cross-border purchase goes wrong because a step was taken after the money moved rather than before it.
Settle the VAT status before you negotiate. Under 6,000 km or under six months since first registration means the car is legally new, and VAT is due in your country on the full price.
If it is legally new, tell the dealer in writing before you pay that you are registering it in another member state, so the invoice comes without their VAT. Doing this afterwards turns into a refund claim.
Ask to see the certificate of conformity before you agree a price. On a car built after July 2026, ask instead which portal holds the electronic version.
If the certificate is missing, price the duplicate in at roughly 70 to 250 euros and one to three weeks, and make it a condition of the sale.
Calculate your national registration tax before you travel, using the CO2 figure, fuel type, power and first registration date from the foreign registration document.
Photograph the current roadworthiness certificate and check its expiry. A valid one from another member state has to be recognised when you re-register, under Article 8(3) of Directive 2014/45/EU.
Arrange the export or temporary plate and its insurance while the seller is still with you, because most schemes need the car still registered in their name.
Get a transport quote as a comparison. Under about ten thousand euros it often wins on cost alone.
Deregister the car in the country you bought it in and keep the proof, because road tax and insurance liability there run until you do.
Register at home inside your country's deadline, which can be as short as one month after establishing your main residence.
Keep the purchase invoice, the certificate of conformity, the foreign registration document and the roadworthiness certificate together. The registration office will want all four, and a missing one stops the file.
Frequently asked questions
Is a car with 3,000 km on it new or used?
New, for VAT, and used for everything else, which is exactly why it catches people. A car only becomes used for VAT once both conditions are satisfied: more than 6,000 km on the odometer and more than six months since it was first registered. A three thousand kilometre demonstrator that has been on the road for a year is still legally new, because the mileage condition fails. A car with 20,000 km that was registered four months ago is also still legally new, because the time condition fails. The dealer's advert, the service history and the second-hand price have no bearing on it. Work out both numbers yourself from the registration document before you talk about money.
Will I really be charged VAT twice?
You should not be, and the system is designed so that you are not, but the protection depends on something you have to do first. VAT on a new means of transport belongs to the country of registration, so a dealer selling to a buyer who will register abroad invoices without their own VAT. If you never told them, they charge their domestic VAT as normal, and your own tax office then charges its own on the full price at registration. At that point you are owed a refund by a business in another country, with their paperwork and their timescale. It is recoverable, and people do recover it, but it can take months and it needs the registration proof from your own country. One email before payment avoids the whole thing.
Do I pay VAT on a used car bought privately abroad?
No. A genuinely used car, meaning more than 6,000 km and more than six months old, bought from a private individual in another EU country carries no VAT at all when you bring it home. That does not make it tax free. You still owe whatever registration tax your own country applies, and on a large or high emission car that can be a substantial figure. From a dealer the picture differs again: most used-car sales run under the margin scheme, where VAT sits inside the price, is not itemised on the invoice and cannot be reclaimed by you, so there is nothing to arrange and nothing to recover.
Do I need the certificate of conformity to register the car?
In practice yes, in most member states, because it is how the authority confirms the car meets EU type approval and where it takes the technical data for your new registration certificate. The manufacturer had to supply it free with the new car, but that obligation was discharged years ago in favour of the first buyer, so a duplicate for a used import is a paid service from the manufacturer or national importer, commonly 70 to 250 euros and one to three weeks. You do not need the previous owner's cooperation to request one, only the VIN and usually the registration document. If the car genuinely has no certificate available, the fallback is an individual approval inspection, which is slower and more expensive but does exist.
Will my imported car need a new roadworthiness test straight away?
Not if the foreign certificate is still valid. Article 8(3) of Directive 2014/45/EU requires each member state to recognise a roadworthiness certificate issued by another member state, on re-registration, as if it had issued the certificate itself, provided it remains valid. The catch is that validity is measured against the destination country's own testing frequency, so a certificate written for two years can be shortened by a country that tests every year. Separately, recognition applies to the periodic test only. An identification check, matching the VIN to the certificate of conformity and the foreign papers, is normal and is not the same thing, and national conformity requirements such as headlight beam pattern can still apply.
How do I legally drive the car home?
On a temporary or export registration taken out in the country of purchase, with insurance bought for it. Germany's export plate is the clearest example: white with a red bar showing its expiry, available at any registration office, valid for a chosen period up to a year, and requiring both parts of the registration certificate, a valid technical inspection and a specific export liability policy that covers the plate's whole validity across Europe and the Mediterranean rim. Belgium, the Netherlands and most other member states run comparable schemes. Because the car normally has to still be registered in the seller's name when you apply, this is done together with the seller rather than afterwards. If that looks like a lot of moving parts for one journey, get a transport quote, which on a modestly priced car regularly comes in cheaper.
