The Car Verdict

The case for shipping it

The moving exemption is real: if you've lived abroad 12+ months and owned and used the car 6+ months, you skip BPM, VAT, and import duty entirely. The catch is the twelve months after import, when the car cannot be sold, rented, lent, pledged, or leased out. The exact wording differs for a move from inside the EU versus outside it, so read the version that matches your move. That's a genuinely large amount of money.

You know this car. Its history, its quirks, its zero surprises.

Some cars are family. A classic or a car with a story can be worth the hassle on sentiment alone. Sentiment doesn't do math, and that's allowed.

The case for selling it

Without the exemption, the import stack is brutal: roughly 6.5% EU customs duty, then 21% VAT on the value plus that duty, then BPM calculated on CO2 emissions. On a big American engine it can still approach the car's own value, and the tariffs went up in 2026 with the brackets tightening every year through 2028.

If you were counting on the electric loophole, it closed. Electric cars lost the BPM exemption in 2025 and now pay a flat base amount, €667 in 2025 and €687 in 2026. Those are two successive years, not a range, and it is small compared to a V8 but no longer zero.

US-spec cars need RDW approval and often physical modifications (lights, indicators) before Dutch plates.

American-sized cars meet Dutch-sized streets, parking spots, and parking garages. This is not a fair fight.

Gas costs roughly double. Insurance is its own adventure.

The US used market pays real money right now. Your car is worth more sold there than driven here.

And the Dutch secret: you might not need a car at all. Bikes, NS trains, and car-share (Greenwheels and friends) cover more life than any American believes until they live it.