Your household goods to Poland: no customs, but three exceptions

Your household goods go to Poland without customs. Dutch Customs says so without reservation: whoever moves to another EU country can generally take their belongings along without a declaration in the Netherlands or in the other country. No inventory list, no clearance, no removal-goods exemption to apply for. Three things fall outside that, and they cost money if you forget them: the car, alcohol and tobacco in large quantities, and your animals.

Why is there no customs?

Within the EU there is free movement of goods. A move to Poland therefore requires no declaration, not with Dutch Customs and not in Poland. That is the big difference with a move to a country outside the EU, where you make an export declaration for your removal goods and hand in an inventory list.

What remains is a transport question: driving yourself, a part load in a shared lorry, or a truck of your own for a whole house. What those options roughly cost is included in the cost estimate for Poland.

What are the three exceptions?

What	The rule	Deadline or limit	What it's about
Your car	excise duty in Poland, unless moving exemption	bring it within 12 months of settling, don't sell or rent it out for 12 months	Polish excise act, article 110
Alcohol and tobacco	free for own use, guideline values per type	for example 800 cigarettes, 10 litres of spirits, 90 litres of wine, 110 litres of beer	European guideline values
Pets	chip, rabies vaccination and EU pet passport	first vaccination at least 21 days old	separate article

The car: excise duty, unless you move

Poland levies excise duty on passenger cars entering the country. Whoever moves can get an exemption, provided everything holds at the same time: the car is for your own use, you used it for at least six months in the previous EU country and can prove that to the Polish tax office, you bring it in within twelve months of settling in Poland, you don't sell, rent out or lend it for the first twelve months after it enters, and it was bought with the normal tax in the Netherlands, without an exemption or tax refund on departure. The competent tax office (urząd skarbowy) then issues a certificate that the car is exempt from excise duty.

How the registration then works, with the thirty-day clock, is in car and driving licence in Poland.

Don't leave the car behind "for a while". The twelve months for the excise duty start when you settle, not on the day the car arrives. Whoever collects the car a year later falls outside the exemption. And on the Dutch side a second clock runs: whoever wants bpm back must have the car on Polish plates within thirteen weeks after the RDW registered the status 'Export'. Ask the urząd skarbowy whether such a bpm refund counts as a 'refund on departure': the act names that condition, but not the Dutch bpm by name.

Alcohol and tobacco: guideline values, not an allowance

Between EU countries you pay excise duty in the country of purchase, and you don't have to pay anything extra on arrival, as long as it is for your own use. To judge that, each country uses guideline values, which may not be lower than the European ones: 800 cigarettes, 400 cigarillos, 200 cigars, 1 kilo of tobacco, 10 litres of spirits, 20 litres of fortified wine, 90 litres of wine of which at most 60 litres sparkling, and 110 litres of beer.

Those are not limits but signals. If you are above them, customs can ask you to prove it is for yourself, for example with proof of purchase. If you can't, you pay excise duty after all or lose the goods. For a wine cellar that moves along, a list with receipts is therefore no needless luxury. Stricter rules apply to travellers under 17.

The animals: their own rules

Dogs, cats and ferrets travel with a chip, a valid rabies vaccination and the EU pet passport. Poland also has its own vaccination duty for dogs that is stricter than what applies to travel. That is covered in your pet to Poland.

What else do you need to arrange?

Two things that have nothing to do with the belongings themselves, but a lot to do with the day the lorry is at the door.

The moving-in date. From the day you move into your Polish home, the thirty-day clock for your address registration runs. So don't plan the move for the week the landlord is on holiday: you need his signature.

Medicines. A supply of prescribed medicines has its own rules, also within the EU. They are in medicines across the border.

The order of move, car and registration on your date is in the step-by-step plan for Poland.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Poland or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.