Your car to Cyprus: left-hand traffic, customs, registration and your driving licence

Yes, you can take your car to Cyprus, and customs is manageable. Within the EU you pay no import duty and no VAT on a used car. Cyprus also levies no excise duty on cars.

Two things to know in advance:

• The deadline. Once customs at the port has established that the car comes from the EU, you have ten working days to clear it (formally declare it) at a customs office. For that you need a CO2 certificate from the Department of Road Transport, the Cypriot road transport authority.
• The traffic. Cyprus drives on the left, and your car has its steering wheel on the left. No form solves that.

What does bringing it in cost?

Item	Used car	New car
Import duty	none, if you prove its EU status	none
VAT	none	19%, unless on moving you show the VAT was already paid in the Netherlands
Excise duty	Cyprus levies no excise duty on cars	the same
Customs clearance	within 10 working days after verification of EU status	within a month, with an official declaration
Registration and road tax	at the Department of Road Transport, after customs	the same

A car counts as new if it has been on the road for less than six months, or has driven less than 6,000 kilometres. That affects few movers.

If you do arrive with an almost new car, you show two things:

• with the purchase invoice, that the VAT was paid in the Netherlands;
• that you are moving, for instance with the lease in Cyprus or the terminated contract in the Netherlands.

How does customs work?

Customs works in two steps.

At the port you first apply for verification of the EU status: proof that the car comes from the EU. For that you need the form, together with the original Dutch registration certificate and the number plates. A T2L document from customs or the shipper (a customs proof of EU status) can take their place. If you don't prove that status, customs treats the car as coming from outside the EU, with import duty and VAT.

After that you have ten working days to clear the car at a customs office. For a used passenger car you hand in:

• the original Dutch registration certificate;
• a certificate from the Department of Road Transport on the CO2 emissions, form TOM119A.

You get that certificate at the road transport department on presenting the same registration certificate. After customs you register the car with that department. Only then can it go onto Cypriot plates and do you pay road tax.

Don't keep driving on your Dutch plates. The six-month rule without formalities applies to people who are in Cyprus temporarily. Anyone going to live there falls under the moving scheme with its ten-working-day deadline. And in the Netherlands a clock of its own is running: for the bpm refund the car must be registered in the new country within thirteen weeks after the RDW has set it to 'Export'.

How does the car get onto the island?

By sea, through a legal port in the south. There is a passenger link between Cyprus and Piraeus for passengers with their own car. The government has extended the contract for it for 2025, 2026 and 2027. Anyone moving outside those sailing dates has the car shipped as freight, in a container or on a ro-ro ship (a ship the car drives onto itself). Whether the car is worth it depends on the sum below.