Your car to Finland: the exemption that no longer exists

If you come from the Swedish or Belgian car stories, you need to switch gears here: within the EU, Finland is the exception where bringing the car is usually not a good idea. The reason is one abolished scheme that stubbornly keeps circulating online.

The exemption died in 2015, not in 2017

Until 2015 Finland had a tax reduction for the "muuttoauto" — the car that came along as removal goods. That scheme was fully abolished from 1 January 2015; only whoever already owned the car before 2015 and moved by the end of 2017 at the latest still fell under the transitional rules. Hence the confusion: many sites name 2017 or 2018 as the year of abolition, and some act as if the exemption still exists. The Finnish tax administration is unambiguous: a car brought along is taxed like any other import.

How the autovero calculates — and why electric is the exception

The autovero is a percentage of the Finnish market value of your car — what comparable examples cost there, not what you paid for it in the Netherlands. The percentage hangs on the CO2 emission (WLTP): an economical mid-range car around 120 grams sits at some 9.5 per cent, 160 grams costs 20 per cent, and the table runs on to almost 49 per cent. Because used cars are more expensive in Finland than here, that bites twice: an ordinary family car easily comes to thousands of euros in tax.

The big exception: a fully electric car first taken into use on or after 1 October 2021 pays 0% autovero. Then only the registration inspection (around € 180) and the registration costs remain — and bringing it is almost always sensible, certainly because the higher Finnish second-hand prices then work in your favour.

The three clocks of the procedure

If you bring it, three deadlines set the rhythm. Before your first drive on Finnish roads you file the online declaration of use with Vero; after that you have five days for the autovero declaration. If that's on time, you may keep driving on your Dutch plates for at most three months — the room for the registration inspection and the first registration with Traficom, which only completes once the tax has been paid. The third clock ticks in the Netherlands: the BPM refund on export wants to see the foreign registration within thirteen weeks of the RDW export status. So plan the inspection in your first weeks, not when convenient.

The sum you do in advance

Put the items honestly side by side. Against you: the autovero on the Finnish value, the inspection and the delay. In your favour: the Dutch remaining BPM you get back, the saving of not buying again, and the fact that you'll later sell the car in Finland for more. For an older car with a low Finnish market value the sum can come out positive; for a common petrol or diesel car, selling in the Netherlands wins almost always. Vero has a calculator that estimates the Finnish value of your model — an evening of calculating before the decision pays for itself twice over here.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Finland.