Car and driving licence in Poland: twelve months for the excise duty, thirty days for the registration

Within the EU there is no customs, and yet with Poland the car is the step with the most clocks. Two of them run against each other.

The excise duty: five conditions, twelve months

Poland levies excise duty on passenger cars entering the country, and it rises with engine size. Whoever moves can get out of it: the relocation car is exempt under article 110 of the excise act, provided five conditions hold at once.

1. The car is intended for your own use.
2. It was yours and in use in the Netherlands for at least six months.
3. You bring it in within twelve months of settling in Poland.
4. You don't sell, rent out or lend it to a third party for the first twelve months.
5. You can demonstrate all of that to the tax office.

If one condition falls away, the exemption falls away. So keep your Dutch registration certificate, your insurance papers and your proof of purchase — that is the evidence for points 2 and 5.

The registration: thirty days, since 2024

Then the second clock, and it is new. Since 1 January 2024 whoever brings a car from an EU country to Poland has to lodge the registration application within thirty days of entry. That is in article 73aa of the road traffic act, and there is a fine on it: 500 złoty when late, and 1,000 złoty when more than a hundred and eighty days late. If you sell the car within those thirty days, the obligation passes to the buyer.

The two clocks bite each other: you have a year to decide whether the car comes along, and a month as soon as it's there. Whoever arrives with the car in summer to "have a look" and leaves it standing is in the fine after thirty days.

What the registration asks

A Polish inspection, the Dutch registration certificate, the proof of the excise exemption or the excise paid, Polish insurance and your address registration. The registration runs at the starostwo of your place of residence, and without a PESEL and an address you don't start on it — which is why the address registration always comes first in this journey.

The driving licence: nothing to exchange

This is the easiest part of the route. A valid driving licence from an EU country doesn't need exchanging in Poland; it simply stays valid. If you want to anyway — for instance because it's about to expire and you'd rather renew it in Poland — a Polish licence costs 100 złoty.

The hundred-and-eighty-five-day deadline going round online applies to licences from outside the EU. Not to you.