Your car to Denmark: the tax that changes everything
On import Denmark levies the full registration tax on the Danish market value of your car: 25, 85 and 150 per cent per bracket, plus a CO₂ surcharge. Those who move pay too; a milder scheme exists only for those who are there temporarily. Against that stands the Dutch BPM refund. This is how you do the sum, with the thirty days that start running straight away.
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Yes, your car may come to Denmark, but then you pay the registreringsafgift. That is the registration tax Denmark levies on the first registration of every car, including an imported one.
This is how it works:
- It is charged on the Danish market value, in three brackets.
- On the part above 237,400 kroner (2026) you pay 150 per cent.
- A surcharge per gram of CO₂ comes on top.
- Whoever comes to live in Denmark pays the full rate. From your arrival you have thirty days.
A milder scheme exists only for those who are in Denmark for a limited period. That is what Motorstyrelsen, the Danish agency for vehicles and vehicle taxes, writes. The trap is the clock of those thirty days.
How is the tax calculated?
The tax is charged on the taxable value: the value including VAT, but excluding the registration tax itself. For a used car that is the commercial value in Denmark, the market price. For a passenger car in 2026:
| Component | Rate 2026 |
|---|---|
| Bracket 1 | 25 per cent on the first 76,400 kroner |
| Bracket 2 | 85 per cent from 76,400 to 237,400 kroner |
| Bracket 3 | 150 per cent on the rest |
| CO₂ surcharge up to 107 grams per km | 294 kroner per gram |
| CO₂ surcharge from 107 to 137 grams | 587 kroner per gram |
| CO₂ surcharge above 137 grams | 1,115 kroner per gram |
| Basic deduction | 25,500 kroner, after the CO₂ surcharge |
For a used car Motorstyrelsen in principle calculates the same as for a new one. Only the taxable value, deduction and surcharges are reduced by the percentage by which the car has lost value compared with an equivalent new one.
If you want to know in advance where you stand, you can ask for a binding ruling: a calculation in advance that Motorstyrelsen sticks to.
What does electric yield?
For a zero-emission car the tax is first calculated normally. You pay only 40 per cent of it if the car is registered before 2027, with an extra basic deduction of 161,300 kroner in 2026.
Motorstyrelsen adds that those 2026 rates apply if parliament adopts the bill of November 2025. The reduction is phased out gradually until 2036.
For a plug-in hybrid under 50 grams of CO₂ you pay 68 per cent of the calculated tax in 2026.
How does the import go?
Motorstyrelsen describes five steps. Registration is only possible if the owner or user has a Danish address.
- Notify. If you live in Denmark and bring a car on foreign plates, you report it online in advance and keep the receipt in the car.
- Inspect. The car must pass an extended inspection at an approved inspection centre, with the original registration certificate. That inspection may be no more than four weeks old at the valuation.
- Have it valued. Via the Register of Motor Vehicles or a private valuation business. Without a CPR number and MitID (the Danish digital ID) you request the valuation from Motorstyrelsen itself.
- Pay. Via online banking or at your bank. A payment via online banking can take up to seven days before you have the receipt.
- Register. At a number plate provider you hand in both parts of the Dutch registration certificate and collect the Danish plates.
Thirty days, and without an answer you stop driving. Motorstyrelsen puts it like this: you have thirty days to register the car, and if you have no answer within thirty days, you may no longer drive on foreign plates. Because inspection, valuation and payment wait for each other, you start in the first week. After that you also pay a periodic tax every year: weight tax or green owner's tax, depending on age and type.
What does the Netherlands give back?
On export the Netherlands refunds part of the BPM, the Dutch tax on passenger cars. That applies to a car that got a Dutch registration on or after 16 October 2006.
The conditions:
- The car has the status "Export" at the RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority.
- Documents show that within thirteen weeks after that it was permanently registered in another EU member state.
Those thirteen weeks and the Danish thirty days fit together, but only if you do not postpone the Danish registration. The refund and the Danish levy are two separate taxes: one offsets nothing against the other.
Which sum do you do?
Put four figures side by side:
- the Danish registration tax;
- the BPM refund;
- what the car fetches in the Netherlands;
- what a comparable car costs in Denmark.
A Danish car has already paid the registration tax at its first registration. If you buy one, it is in the price, but you have no inspection, no valuation and no thirty-day clock.
Do the sum before you leave. Whoever only does it in Denmark does it under time pressure. How the rest of your belongings cross the border is in your household goods to Denmark.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Denmark or go straight to step 1.2 in the open plan.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- Motorstyrelsen — registration tax and rates 2026, with the CO₂ surcharge and the rules for electric — motorst.dk
- Motorstyrelsen — importing a vehicle in five steps, and the thirty days — motorst.dk
- Motorstyrelsen — questions and answers on foreign vehicles, temporary stays and periodic tax — motorst.dk
- Belastingdienst — BPM refund on export — belastingdienst.nl
- RDW — exporting a vehicle — rdw.nl
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