Your car to Sweden: cheap, with three bits of small print

For almost every used car, bringing it along to Sweden is the right sum, provided you don't let the seven days on Dutch plates run out.

Anyone who read the Denmark chapter of this knowledge base expects the worst. Relax: Sweden is the opposite.

• There is no registration tax on import.
• The paperwork is two steps.
• The Netherlands refunds the remaining BPM on export: the part of the Dutch registration tax that is still in the value of the car.

The procedure: two steps

Step one is the ursprungskontroll at Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish Transport Agency. That is the origin check of the vehicle. You apply for it online with your original registration certificate and the purchase document. It costs SEK 1,240 (2026); the invoice comes automatically by post as soon as you submit the application.

Step two is the registreringsbesiktning, the registration inspection at an inspection station. It follows once the origin check is approved. If the car passes, things move quickly:

• the company registers the car directly in the register;
• the registration number is assigned automatically;
• the plates are made and on their way to your home within five working days.

The inspection itself has a market price, set by the inspection company. Count on a few thousand kronor, and do compare.

After that you pay only the ordinary fordonsskatt, the Swedish road tax: a base amount of SEK 360 plus a CO₂ component. No import levy, no percentage of the value, nothing.

The three bits of small print

Small print	The rule	What it costs you
The seven days	after the day of import you may drive seven days on your Dutch plates, with valid Dutch registration and insurance; after that temporary registration is compulsory	the temporary registration is valid three months, cannot be extended, and comes with red plates with white lettering
The VAT trap	younger than six months or fewer than 6,000 kilometres: then the car is a new means of transport for VAT	Swedish VAT, declared to Skatteverket in Ludvika with a separate return
The malus	increased road tax for three years from the first registration, in Sweden or elsewhere	SEK 360 base plus per gram of CO₂ above the threshold; a car older than three years never pays malus

One: the seven days. If the registration process takes longer than a week, and it almost always does, apply for the tillfällig registrering: the temporary registration, with its own registration certificate and red plates. Within those three months the car must be inspected. The only drive allowed after the seventh day without temporary registration is the one to the inspection.

Two: the VAT trap for young cars. A car that on arrival is younger than six months or has driven fewer than 6,000 kilometres counts for VAT as a new means of transport. Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, gives the examples itself:

• three months old with 9,000 kilometres is new;
• seven months old with 100 kilometres is too.

Anyone who has just bought a new car therefore better waits until it is past both limits, or honestly counts the VAT.

Three: the malus counts from the first registration, anywhere in the world. The malus is an increased road tax that Sweden levies for three years on petrol and diesel cars with high emissions. The online misconception is that those three years start again at the Swedish registration. The rule says explicitly that the clock runs from the first entry into service "in Sweden or in another country".

The threshold depends on that date:

• above 95 grams per kilometre for cars entering service between 1 July 2018 and 31 March 2021;
• above 90 grams until 31 May 2022;
• above 75 grams from 1 June 2022.

Above that you pay per gram, plus the base amount. For a car from after 1 June 2022, which is every car still paying malus today, that is SEK 107 per gram up to and including 125 grams and SEK 132 per gram beyond. A diesel car pays an environmental and fuel supplement on top. A Dutch car older than three years therefore never pays malus, and a younger one only the remainder of the term.