Your household goods to Romania: no customs within the EU, and since 2025 no border checks either

Do you have to declare your household goods when you move to Romania? No. Within the European Union goods move freely, and Dutch Customs says it literally for the opposite direction: you don't need to make a declaration for your belongings. You paid the VAT where you bought them. The find for Romania is the date 1 January 2025: since that day the country has been fully in Schengen, so the border with Hungary, where lorries used to queue for hours, is an ordinary internal border. The pitfall is the route: anyone who drives from the Netherlands to Romania through a country outside the EU leaves the EU and re-enters it, with that country's rules and the stricter rules for travellers from outside.

What may come along without more?

Everything that is for you or your family. Your Europe writes that you may take what you bought in another EU country without a declaration, as long as it is for personal use and not for resale; EURES says the same for Romania, with the European limits for categories such as alcohol and tobacco as the exception. Furniture, books, tools, bicycles, your computer: no form, no stop.

Which limits apply to alcohol and tobacco?

What	Guide level within the EU	Entering the EU from outside, by land
Cigarettes	800	lower allowance, the country decides
Spirits	10 litres	1 litre
Wine	90 litres, of which 60 sparkling	4 litres of still wine
Beer	110 litres	16 litres
Fuel in a portable container	10 litres, besides the full tank	10 litres
Other goods for personal use	no limit	allowance up to an amount per traveller

Within the EU those quantities are not a maximum but a guide level: if you take more, customs may ask for proof that it is for your own use, and if you can't give it, you pay excise duty or lose the goods. Anyone under seventeen falls under stricter rules. Dutch Customs says it from its side: alcohol and tobacco from an EU country are free of excise duty up to a certain quantity, if for personal use.

Why the route matters

Through a non-EU country it is no longer a domestic trip. Your Europe warns that anyone who travels from one EU country to another via a non-EU country has to deal with that country's customs rules; the example is Switzerland, where you declare alcohol and tobacco above the Swiss threshold on entry and on re-entering the EU, sometimes with a deposit. The usual route from the Netherlands to Romania, through Germany, Austria and Hungary, stays in the EU and, since 2025, in Schengen. Ask a remover who proposes another route how he arranges the transit, and keep the inventory list in the cab.

An inventory list isn't compulsory within the EU, but it is wise: for the insurance, for a possible question from a customs officer on the way, and because in Romania you are done faster with a list in Romanian if someone does ask.

What doesn't belong to the household goods?

The car. It drives freely across the border, but must go on Romanian plates, after a tax registration with the municipality and a certificate from the RAR. That is in car and driving licence in Romania. Your dog or cat travels on the EU pet passport, see taking your pet to Romania. And your medicines have their own rules.

After the move you may still order from the Netherlands. A web shop that sells more than 10,000 euros a year to other EU countries charges, according to Your Europe, the VAT of the country of destination, so the Romanian one; for second-hand goods, art and antiques that rule doesn't apply.

Where the lorry has to go

That hangs on your address. The registered tenancy agreement is also the address that goes on your registration certificate, and a removal van that arrives before you have a key is the most expensive storage there is. So arrange the home before the moving date, and plan the arrival of the household goods after the day you sign the contract. How that fits into the order of the whole move is in the step-by-step plan for Romania.

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 Romania or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.