Moving to Belgium or Brussels with your car: what to register and when

Wallonia puts it simply: anyone residing in Belgium must register their vehicle there. According to the Flemish government, the obligation applies once you are on the population or foreigners' register, so not if you only have a second home or holiday home in the country. The Brussels Expat Welcome Desk says the same for the capital: 'Once registered with the municipality in which you live, you are technically required to complete the steps necessary to register your vehicle in Belgium.'

How soon? We found no clear legal deadline. In a ruling published by the Flemish Tax Administration, the Court of Appeal in Ghent said all formalities must be completed as soon as possible. Wallonia states that its inspectors apply a tolerance of 30 calendar days after your entry in the National Register; after that you are in breach and face the taxes plus a fine. Treat those 30 days as a tolerance, not a right, and register as soon as possible after your entry in the population or foreigners' register.

Since 1 October 2018, putting a vehicle on the road that is not registered in Belgium, while you live there, has been a second-degree offence, even if the vehicle is registered abroad.

Wallonia's summary of the federal rule lists seven exceptions, including:

• a car that a foreign employer makes available to a Belgian resident for work, and possibly private use too, with a copy of the employment contract or assignment and a document from the employer in the car;
• a rental car from a foreign rental company (up to six months, with a signed and dated rental contract on board);
• the car of a student whose residence is abroad;
• the car of a person who is temporarily absent;
• a car lent free of charge, for up to a month;
• a trailer registered abroad (up to six months).

In our reading, a cross-border worker who lives in Belgium and uses a Dutch-registered car provided by a Dutch employer falls under the employer exception, provided the documents are in the car. For your own private car on Dutch plates there is no exception. Wallonia also exempts the foreign employer's car from its annual road tax.

The Flemish government sums up the move from an EU country in four steps:

1. Customs: request the E705 vignette online in MyMinfin.
2. Inspection: a technical inspection, unless you have a valid foreign inspection certificate. If you have a recent inspection certificate in your own name, a visual inspection may be enough; ask the inspection centre whether your Dutch APK (periodic roadworthiness test) counts.
3. Insurance: take out Belgian third-party liability insurance. The Brussels Expat Welcome Desk is clear that a Belgian policy is mandatory before driving.
4. Registration with the DIV, the Vehicle Registration Service, often done by your insurer through WebDIV. bpost then delivers the plate within 24 hours, at 30 euros per plate.

For the E705 and the DIV you need an identity document and a Belgian address, which means being registered with your municipality. The Brussels desk mentions a copy of the identity card or the 'annexe de la commune'. Each step is explained on our page about registering a car in Belgium, and the Flemish government has an English page on bringing a vehicle when moving.

Moving to Brussels? Almost the whole Brussels-Capital Region is a low-emission zone. Brussels asks foreign-registered vehicles to register before entering, with an exception for vehicles from the Netherlands. Whether a car on white export plates counts as such is unclear, so read the Brussels guidance for expats before you drive in.

The exemption lists of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels do not include an exemption for people moving house. Count on paying the one-off registration tax at your first Belgian registration: BIV in Flanders and Brussels, TMC in Wallonia. The annual road tax of your region follows. The amount depends on factors such as CO2 emissions, power, fuel and age. Links to the official calculators are on our page about the cost of importing a car to Belgium.

Whether you owe Belgian VAT on a nearly new car that you bring along without buying it depends on your situation. Ask before you move.

According to NederlandWereldwijd, your car insurance is no longer valid once the car has been removed from the Dutch vehicle register, and you need temporary insurance until it is registered in your new country. That is our export insurance: 14 days of third-party cover with a Green Card, which can be extended by 14 days at a time after the insurer agrees.

After the export, the Dutch insurance obligation, APK obligation and motor vehicle tax stop. On the Belgian side, a Belgian policy is needed for the registration.

According to NederlandWereldwijd, you can only reclaim BPM (the Dutch registration tax) on emigration if you move to an EU country, and Belgium is one. The conditions of the Belastingdienst, the Dutch Tax Administration, include a used car, van or motorcycle registered in the Netherlands on or after 16 October 2006, the status Export at the RDW, and registration in Belgium within 13 weeks of that status. Our BPM refund service handles the application for a fixed fee; the Belastingdienst decides on the refund.

Moved already and still on Dutch plates? The car still has to be registered locally, and the inspection centre and the DIV ask for the complete original foreign registration certificate. According to the RDW, the export certificate together with the registration card is what you need for registration abroad.

We can arrange that export with kentekenbewijs deel II fully remotely, through a separate procedure that runs by post. Insured DHL shipping takes about 5 working days, or about 1 working day with Express. Contact our export desk first: we'll tell you what we need and what it costs.

Caravans and trailers up to 750 kg carry a duplicate of the towing car's plate in Belgium and are not registered with the DIV; heavier ones get their own Q or U plate. A motorhome is registered like a car. Our page on exporting a motorhome or caravan to Belgium has the details per region.