Your car to Bonaire: the twelve-month rule

With the European corridors the car sum is a matter of refunds and inspections. With Bonaire it is a customs sum — and one that surprisingly often works out well, provided you know one rule that is stricter than all the others.

The exemption: six months for the sofa, twelve for the car

Removal goods may enter the Caribbean Netherlands tax-free, with a permit from customs that you apply for in advance. For ordinary belongings the rule is: at least six months in your possession and use. For passenger vehicles it is twelve months — and that difference is the most missed rule of this route. Whoever bought their car eleven months before departure pays the full whack on import: 25% tax on the value plus the freight and insurance. Fully electric cars are the exception: they pay 0%, regardless of how long you've owned them. The other conditions apply to everything: import within six months of settling, and no selling, hiring out or lending for twelve months after import.

The Dutch side: no refund, but a tidy export

Here Bonaire differs sharply from every EU destination: the BPM refund doesn't exist. The Belastingdienst only refunds residual BPM on lasting registration in an EU member state, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway — Bonaire isn't among them, so the residual BPM in your car is lost. The export itself you simply arrange with the RDW: export notification, indemnity certificate (vrijwaringsbewijs), and the road tax and insurance stop. For a young car with a lot of residual BPM this is a reason to do the sum twice; for a car of five years or older the loss is bearable.

The sum on the island

Shipping costs € 1,500 to 3,000, in the removal container or by car carrier. Against that stands the local market: small supply, import prices, and the same 25% tax that every dealer builds into their price — a comparable second-hand car costs noticeably more there than in the Netherlands. Whoever has owned their car for twelve months and whose car can handle the climate (high entry, air conditioning, preferably no paint and leather splendour that suffers under the sun) therefore usually takes it along at a gain. One fuel choice deserves a warning: the island's motor vehicle tax charges a diesel passenger car well over $ 800 a year, against some $ 190 for petrol. Taking a diesel along is therefore almost always a mistake.

After arrival: registration, plates and one date

With the exemption permit, customs clearance is a formality, after which the car gets its Bonairean registration and plates. Two things to remember: the road tax runs per calendar year and only stops when you hand in the plates — whoever sells their car at the end of December and keeps the plates simply pays on for the next year — and the island itself is the biggest wear item: salt, sun and unpaved roads demand more maintenance than Dutch kilometres ever did.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to Bonaire.