Your household goods to Sweden: no customs, but three things you declare

Yes, your household goods go to Sweden without a single form. Tullverket, the Swedish customs agency, writes it itself: whoever moves to Sweden from another EU country pays no import duties, no VAT and no other tax on their removal goods, and does not have to file an import declaration. What it costs is the drive — a thousand to sixteen hundred kilometres, with two bridges — and the trap is in three categories that do have rules: alcohol, medicines and weapons. Whoever knows them drives on; whoever doesn't stands at the Öresund bridge with a problem.

Why is there no customs, and where does that stop?

Sweden is in the EU customs union and VAT area. Your furniture, bikes, books and tools have already been taxed in the EU and enter the country without a check. The limit of that rule lies at territories outside the EU VAT area — Tullverket mentions Åland and the Canary Islands among others — and at anyone bringing a car: that has to be registered with Transportstyrelsen, and that is a story of its own with a clock of its own, see your car to Sweden.

How much alcohol may come along?

From another EU country you pay no excise duty, on three conditions that always apply: you are 20 or over, you transport the drink yourself, and it is for you or your family. Tullverket applies guide levels within which personal use is assumed — and warns that the quantity is not the only thing that counts: customs assesses the whole picture.

Drink	Guide level from an EU country
Spirits	10 litres
Fortified wine (port, sherry)	20 litres
Wine and other fermented drinks	90 litres, of which at most 60 litres sparkling
Strong beer	110 litres

A wine cellar well beyond that is no longer removal goods but a request for an explanation. Bring the receipts if you get anywhere near.

How much medicine, and which papers?

From an EEA country you may bring at most a year's supply of non-narcotic medicines; from outside the EEA it is three months. That it is for personal use you must be able to show — with a prescription, the pharmacy label or a doctor's certificate. For medicines classed as narcotic or as doping the rule is stricter: only for medical purposes and personal use, demonstrably, and in some cases with a Schengen certificate. Arrange that in the Netherlands before departure; the Dutch route for it is in medicines across the border.

What if there is a weapon in the removal van?

This is the category the Dutch think about least: grandpa's hunting rifle, an air rifle, a sports pistol. The Swedish police are brief: all import of weapons requires a permit. The three exceptions apply only to hunting and sporting weapons that come temporarily for a hunt or a competition — not for a move. And Tullverket adds the second duty: a weapon for which you need a permit you also declare to customs at the border. Without a permit you therefore leave the weapon in the Netherlands, or you arrange the import permit before the removal van leaves.

Apply for the weapons permit before you leave, not at the border. A removal van with an undeclared rifle is not carelessness but a crime, and customs does check removal vans, also within the EU. Anyone unsure whether something counts as a weapon — a crossbow, an alarm pistol — asks the Swedish police before packing.

What do the bridges cost?

The route to Sweden runs through Denmark, with the Great Belt bridge and the Öresund bridge as fixed items. For the Öresund bridge: a passenger car up to six metres pays 470 Danish kroner per single trip at the toll station, 420 online, and 182 with the ØresundGO subscription. That subscription costs 370 Danish kroner a year and gives 60% off every crossing — one return trip and you have earned it back. A car with a trailer up to fifteen metres pays double. The Great Belt has its own tariff system with a discount for automatic payment; count it in the cost indication at /zweden/kosten.

What do you take separately?

Keep the papers you will need in the first weeks out of the container: your passport, the multilingual extracts from the Netherlands, the employment contract or the proof of means for Skatteverket, the European pet passport of dog or cat and the registration certificate if the car comes along. The folkbokföring requires a personal visit with originals, and that visit comes before the removal van is unpacked. The order is at /zweden.

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