Exporting your car from the Netherlands: RDW, insurance and bpm

Two routes

The RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, has two ways to export a car. Which one you choose matters for what happens on the Portuguese side.

Route A: deregister before you leave

You take the car to an RDW test station, an RDW desk or a recognised export company. You bring a valid ID, the registration card and the number plates. At the RDW itself this costs €12.00.

You then get:

• an indemnity certificate (vrijwaringsbewijs): proof that the registration in your name has ended;
• the registration card back with a corner cut off;
• the export certificate (kentekenbewijs deel II), meant for registration abroad.

From the notification, the Dutch insurance obligation, the MOT (apk) obligation and the road tax end. You may drive on Dutch roads for another 14 days with the export plate. For the countries you drive through and for Portugal itself your insurance must remain valid; arrange that with your insurer before you deregister.

Route B: deregister once the car is in Portugal

You drive to Portugal on your ordinary Dutch plates, with your current insurance. Once the car is there and stays there, you report the export yourself online to the RDW with the form Melding export. You attach documents showing that the vehicle is abroad and will stay there. The RDW assesses the notification within 10 working days and sends a confirmation letter. Only stop your insurance once you have that letter. This route gives you no export certificate.

Which route fits Portugal?

The RDW says it itself: first ask in the importing country which documents you need, and do not deregister the car before you know.

What we know from the Portuguese sources:

• Customs asks for the car's registration certificate with the declaration.
• The original foreign registration certificate must be handed in to the IMT within 10 days of the DAV.
• For the exemption the car must be registered and in your name when you move.

With route B you keep a valid, intact registration certificate in your name and continuous insurance all the way to Portugal. That matches what Portugal asks for. Whether a cut registration card with an export certificate (route A) is accepted without questions in your case, we could not establish from an official Portuguese source. If you choose route A, ask the customs office where you file the DAV beforehand.

Road tax and insurance

As long as the car is in your name in the Netherlands, the Dutch road tax continues. It stops at the moment of the export notification (route A) or on the date the RDW approves your online notification (route B). Ask your Dutch insurer until when cover runs once the car is in Portugal and gets a Portuguese registration, and match the end date to the moment the Portuguese insurance starts, so that there is no day without cover.

Claiming bpm back

If you export a used car you can sometimes get part of the Dutch bpm back. The conditions of the Dutch tax office:

• the car got its Dutch registration on or after 16 October 2006;
• it is not a damaged vehicle;
• the car has the status 'Export' at the RDW;
• documents show that it was permanently registered in another EU country within 13 weeks of that export status.

You claim the refund with the form 'Verzoek teruggaaf bpm voor een motorrijtuig met status export bij de RDW'. The tax office determines the amount. Mind the 13-week deadline: the Portuguese route can take longer than that. If you want to secure the refund, plan the export notification so that the Portuguese registration can fall within those 13 weeks.