Your car after emigrating: export it or transfer it, because keeping it in your own name is not allowed

If you deregister from the Netherlands, you also have to sort out your car. The RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, puts it plainly: "You may not have a vehicle in your name if you are no longer registered with a Dutch municipality."

So you have two choices:

• The car comes with you. Then you register it for export.
• The car stays in the Netherlands. Then someone who is registered in the Netherlands puts it in their name.

Arrange it before or when you leave. If you wait until after you have deregistered, the car may no longer be on public roads, and the police can impound it at a check.

When do you have to deregister? If you are outside the Netherlands for more than 8 months in a 12-month period, you must deregister from your municipality. Even if you keep your house. If you stay registered, this article does not apply to you.

What does the RDW do on 18 November 2026?

On 18 November 2026 the RDW ends the registration of vehicles that are still in the name of someone who is no longer registered at a Dutch address. The registration (tenaamstelling) records whose name the car is in.

It concerns everyone who deregistered on or before 30 April 2026. The RDW has informed these people.

From 18 November such a car may no longer stand or drive on public roads. Not even parked outside your parents' front door. If the police come across it, they can impound it.

Did you deregister later? The RDW's announcement does not give a date for you. The rule does apply: no registration, no car in your name.

The car comes with you: export

Exporting means you take the car off the Dutch vehicle register, so that it can be registered in your new country.

This is how you go about it:

1. First ask in your new country which papers you need there. The RDW warns: do not deregister the car before you know.
2. Go to an RDW inspection station, an RDW counter or an approved export company. Take your ID, the registration card with the registration code and the number plates. You hand in the plates.
3. You receive three things: an indemnity certificate (proof that the registration in your name has stopped), your registration card with a corner cut off, and the export certificate. You need the last two to register the car in your new country.
4. Is the car going to a country outside the EU or EFTA? Then also file an export declaration with Customs.

After the deregistration you may drive in the Netherlands for another 14 days, with an export number plate: the same registration number, but black on white plates. A car must then be insured and have a valid MOT (APK).

Only after the export do the insurance obligation, the APK obligation and road tax stop.

Do you get bpm back? Sometimes. You get part of the bpm (the Dutch purchase tax on cars) back if the car meets all these conditions:

• it got a Dutch registration on or after 16 October 2006;
• it is not a damaged vehicle;
• it has the status "export" at the RDW;
• it is permanently registered in another EU country, or in Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway;
• that registration is done within 13 weeks of the export status, and you can show it.

So start the registration in your new country right after you arrive. Outside the EU and the EEA you do not get the bpm back.

What importing costs in your new country varies hugely. In one country it is an inspection, in another a tax of thousands of euros. So also read the article about your country, such as taking the car to Spain, Sweden or Italy.