Emigrating to Portugal with a Dutch-registered car: ISV and residency

Under article 30 of the ISV code (CISV), your normal residence is in Portugal if you live there for 185 days or more per calendar year, based on personal and professional ties. A resident may only use a car on foreign registration with prior authorisation from customs (alfândega). A car that comes in with your move needs a DAV, the customs vehicle declaration, within 20 working days of entry. If you apply for the exemption below, you file it together with the DAV.

When you move your residence to Portugal, your car can be exempt from ISV. According to gov.pt and the AT, all of these conditions must be met:

1. You are over 18.
2. You have lived abroad for at least 6 months. The AT asks for proof; time abroad only for study, a traineeship or a temporary assignment of up to two years does not count.
3. You have owned the car in the country you come from for at least 6 months, counted from the date of the ownership document (for a financial lease, from the date of the contract).
4. All taxes due there were paid, and the car received no tax relief on its dispatch or export to Portugal.
5. The car is imported on the occasion of the move.
6. One car or motorcycle per person, and only once every ten years.

The application is free and made online on the Portal das Finanças with form modelo 1460.1, together with the DAV, at the customs office for your tax address. The deadline is 12 months from moving your residence, counted from the date you were deregistered in the Netherlands. Once the exemption is recognised, it lapses six months after you are notified, and the DAV for the registration must follow within that time. gov.pt explains the exemption application in Portuguese.

• the vehicle's registration certificate (keep the Dutch export certificate and registration card as originals);
• Cartão de Cidadão, or an ID card or passport plus a taxpayer card;
• the certificate of conformity, Modelo 9 and the inspection certificate modelo 112, because the IMT part still applies;
• official proof of residence from the population register of the country you came from, with start and end dates: think of an extract from the Dutch BRP, and check in advance which document customs accepts;
• evidence of daily life in that country, such as rent, water and electricity bills, salary or social contributions;
• consent to check your tax and social security status, or a certidão de situação regularizada.

How the 20 working days for the DAV and the 12 months for the exemption fit together is not clear. The safe course: apply for the exemption and file the DAV right after arrival, or ask customs before you travel.

Before the decision, customs can allow the car to be used, provided it is driven by the owner, by a spouse or partner, or by parents or children in the same household. After recognition, the car may be used for 60 days from the allocation of the Portuguese registration number, covered by the request that shows the number. For 12 months from the registration you may not sell, rent out or lend the car, or the full tax becomes due, and you must establish your normal residence in Portugal.

BPM is the Dutch registration tax. Portugal is in the EU, so a partial BPM refund on export is possible. But condition 4 of the Portuguese exemption excludes cars that received tax relief on export, and a BPM refund is a tax refund on departure. Claiming it may therefore cost you the exemption. Ask the AT (customs) or an adviser before you apply for either; we never promise that both can be combined. Details on BPM refund on export.

Deregistering the car for export ends the Dutch insurance obligation, APK (the Dutch roadworthiness test) and road tax for you. Your Dutch car insurance is no longer valid once the car is out of the Dutch register, and NederlandWereldwijd advises temporary insurance until the car is registered in your new country. Our export insurance does that: 14 days, extendable by 14 days at a time if the insurer agrees. After arrival, follow the Portuguese registration route.

Already living there with the car on Dutch plates? We can arrange the export entirely remotely, by post: DHL standard takes about 5 working days, DHL Express about 1 working day. Contact us first and we will tell you what is needed and what it costs.

An EU driving licence remains valid in Portugal until the expiry date on it. Once you settle there, register it at the IMT office for your area within 60 days of taking up residence; the service is free. You may also exchange it for a Portuguese licence if you wish.

If you do not live in Portugal, your car with ordinary Dutch registration may stay there for private use for up to six months in any 12-month period, in one go or split up. It may then be driven only by the owner, a spouse or partner, parents and children, or the lawful holder, and only if they are not resident there themselves. This applies to a car that stays registered in the Netherlands on yellow plates, not to one deregistered for export. A vehicle that stays more than 183 days in a calendar year also owes the annual IUC.

Studying there? gov.pt says an EU student does not have to register the car while studying; this exemption is only for temporary importation and is applied for with the DAV on the Portal das Finanças within 30 days of the car's entry. If you also work in Portugal, the car must be registered and the taxes paid.

Bringing a motorhome or caravan as well? See motorhome and caravan export to Portugal.