Car and driving licence in Romania: first the municipality, then the RAR, then the registration certificate of 76 lei

May you take your car to Romania? Yes. You drive across the border without formalities, and anyone who moves their normal residence to Romania should register the car there and pay the car taxes there. The Romanian registration has no import levy and costs little in fees: the registration certificate 76 lei. The find in the document list of the driving licence and registration service is the order: the car must first be registered for tax with your municipality's local tax office, and have a certificate of authenticity from the Romanian inspection body RAR, before you reach the counter. The pitfall is a car without a valid inspection or without the Dutch registration papers: those are retained.

What do you need at the DGPCI?

For a vehicle previously registered outside Romania, the service requires the car to have a valid Romanian carte de identitate a vehiculului, a valid certificate of authenticity from the RAR and a valid periodic inspection. Then you submit:

• the application form;
• your proof of ownership, original and copy, registered with the local tax office of your place of residence, with the registration number from the municipal vehicle register on it;
• your identity document;
• the carte de identitate a vehiculului, original;
• proof of payment of the registration certificate, 76 lei, and of the number plates;
• a copy of a Romanian third-party insurance (RCA) in the owner's name;
• a certificate from the tax agency ANAF on VAT, if the car comes from an EU country and you are not VAT-registered;
• the foreign registration documents and the foreign plates, original.

You lose your Dutch papers and plates. The service asks for the foreign registration documents and plates in original, and keeps them. So arrange the bpm refund in the right order: first the "Export" status at the RDW, then the Romanian registration within thirteen weeks, and keep copies of everything.

You don't pay the fees in cash at the counter: via ghișeul.ro, by transfer or at a payment terminal. Anyone who pays via ghișeul.ro needn't bring proof of payment.

What does it cost?

Item	Amount or deadline	Where
Registration certificate	76 lei	DGPCI, via ghișeul.ro or bank
Provisional authorisation	25 lei	DGPCI
Number plates	paid separately, rate per county	treasury or counter
Certificate of authenticity	at the RAR, before registration	RAR
Tax registration of the car	before registration	local tax office of your municipality
Bpm refund from the Netherlands	Romanian registration within 13 weeks of the RDW "Export" status	Belastingdienst
Annual vehicle tax	by engine size and Euro standard, per municipality	municipality

How high is the annual tax?

It is municipal and follows article 470 of the tax code: per 200 cm³ of engine capacity an amount that falls as the Euro standard rises. Timișoara gives these amounts per 200 cm³ for 2026:

Engine capacity	Non-Euro to E3	E4	E5	E6
up to 1,600 cm³	19.5 lei	18.8 lei	17.6 lei	16.5 lei
1,601 to 2,000 cm³	29.7 lei	28.5 lei	26.7 lei	25.1 lei
2,001 to 2,600 cm³	92.2 lei	88.6 lei	82.8 lei	77.8 lei

An electric car pays 40 lei a year. The municipality's worked example: 1,591 cm³ with standard E3 is eight times 19.5 lei, 156 lei, plus Timișoara's surcharge of 50 percent for 2026, 234 lei a year. Other municipalities apply other surcharges; ask at the local tax department, which you visit anyway for the registration.

What does the Netherlands give back?

If you export the car, you get part of the bpm back, provided the car got a Dutch registration on or after 16 October 2006, has the "Export" status at the RDW and is durably registered in Romania within thirteen weeks of that status. You apply for the refund with the Belastingdienst's form, after the RDW has registered the export.

The driving licence: nothing to exchange

A valid EU driving licence doesn't have to be exchanged; the service answers the question whether a move obliges you to do so simply no. According to Your Europe it only becomes obligatory on loss, theft or damage, on a traffic offence in your country of residence, or after two years if your licence has no expiry date; a Dutch licence has one.

If you want or have to exchange anyway, you file a request in person at the service of the județ where you live, after at least 185 days of residence. You hand in the original licence, your identity document and the proof of your residence registration, the application form, a medical certificate from a Romanian institution if you want a new validity, and the fee of 139 lei. The service first checks with the Dutch authorities that your licence is genuine and valid; the new licence comes within fifteen days of that check, by post, with a thirty-day proof of the right to drive until it arrives. An expired licence from an EU country may also be exchanged.

When the car's turn comes next to the household goods and the first weeks is in the step-by-step plan for Romania.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Romania or go straight to step 3.2 in the open plan.