Your car to Austria: no exemption, but an old rate

Ask ten Dutch emigrants about the car and nine say: "as removal goods you pay no registration tax in Austria". The Austrian Ministry of Finance says the opposite — literally. This article sets out the real rules.

The myth, and where it comes from

When moving from an EU country your household goods are indeed fully free: no tax, no formalities. But for the vehicle the BMF adds that before the first Austrian registration the NoVA (Normverbrauchsabgabe, the standard-consumption tax) is due — there is no exemption for removal goods. The six-month rule doing the rounds ("car owned for half a year = exempt") is the customs exemption for whoever moves from a country outside the EU, and says nothing about the NoVA. Whoever builds their planning on that myth discovers the bill at the Finanzamt.

The three real softeners

First: a fully electric car pays 0% NoVA — you take that along without a care. Second, and virtually unknown: the NoVA is calculated according to the law as it applied at the moment of the first registration of your car in the EU — so your Dutch registration date. A car from before the tightening of mid-2021 falls under the old, milder regime; an economical petrol car often comes out at a few hundred euros under the current rules, while a recent heavy consumer can run into the thousands. Third: on export within the EU the Netherlands refunds the remaining BPM — provided the definitive Austrian registration is completed within thirteen weeks of the RDW export status. For a young car that refund often amply covers the whole Austrian operation.

The clock: one month, not a day more

The deadline that decides everything is in § 82 of the Kraftfahrgesetz: a vehicle with foreign plates, used by someone with their main residence in Austria, must be registered in Austria within one month — temporarily leaving the country expressly does not extend the deadline, and only with a demonstrated impediment is one month added. The stories about six or twelve months apply to visitors without an Austrian main residence, not to emigrants. The consolation: whoever registers within that month automatically meets the thirteen-week requirement of the BPM refund.

The procedure, in four steps

First you have the vehicle data entered in the Genehmigungsdatenbank — with the COC document (the EU type approval, bring it from the Netherlands!) that's an administrative act via the brand importer, around € 180, without an inspection. Then follows the NoVA return via FinanzOnline; only after payment does the Finanzamt release the registration. The third step is the Pickerl — the periodic inspection, because a Dutch APK doesn't count. And the registration itself happens at a typically Austrian place: at the Zulassungsstelle of your car insurer — there, the insurers run the registration desks. Count on € 350 to 400 in procedure costs all together, plus the NoVA. After that the fixed costs remain: the motorbezogene Versicherungssteuer (the road tax, hidden in your insurance premium) and the annual vignette of € 106.80.

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