Required Documents for Buying a Used Car in Poland

I'm a dual citizen, Polish and American, and I would like to buy a used car in Poland. I've been living in the US for most of my life. Would an "International Driving Permit" be enough to drive legally in Poland, considering I'm technically a national? Would it be enough to buy a car privately? How does car insurance work in Poland? What else would I need? Any advice will help. Thanks.

We don't need a Driving Permit to buy a car.


We insure a car not driver. eg four cars, insurance for each car.

Buying the car is one thing. Legally registering it is another. The car HAS to be registered to somebody at all times, and within hours of selling you the car, the previous owner will (if he has any sense) de-register his ownership at his local government office.

To register the car, you need an official registered address (zameldowanie) so that the owner can be traced, as well as providing the purchase contract (umowa kupno-sprzedaz) with the appropriate ID (a passport will be enough). You will also need to pay a 2% purchase tax at the tax office.

With insurance, it's a legal requirement to have it at all times, all year round. When you buy the car the previous owner's policy may transfer over to you, or he may cancel it but that still gives you 30 days to organise your own insurance. As others have said, you insure the car not the driver, but the price of the policy is based on the person insuring the car.

Stumbled across this discussion and found it helpful. Do you by chance know where to look up the tax for a car being registered on a Polish company and whether the procedure differs?

My car is a company asset and there was no difference in tax requirements; I had to fill out the appropriate form (PCC-1, I think) and pay the 2% tax of the price stated on the contract.

The same rule applies for car parts; I purchased a new engine (again, company expense) which will be deducted from my corporate income, but is also liable for the 2% tax.

So, I just pay 2% on registration and that is all? Is it paid yearly or just once?

The tax is on the purchase contract. There is no "car tax" or "road tax" as such in Poland.

However, this tax is in a separate government office from the actual registration process of having the car transferred to your ownership, which will have its own group of one-time fees.

Thank you for the swift replies, conscise and helpful. Where can I read about the other fees you spoke of?

Here's a very basic explanation: ilekosztuje.pl/rejestracja-samochodu (in Polish)

The main cost is that, with every change of owner, the license plates of the car change if the car is registered in a new district. It's a pointless bureaucratic mechanism that slows down the whole painful process of buying a car in Poland, but if gives thousands of otherwise-unemployable grumpy old women some much-needed "work".

When you register your car, you need to hand in your old license plates, which means the car cannot be driven on public roads.

Awesome! Thank you very much you saved me hours of googling.

Two and three cars ago, if you know what I mean, I was given temporary plates and a temporary registration document, so my driving was uninterrupted. The last time I did it, I got the new plates immediately, and just had to wait two weeks for the new registration document.

Apparently there is still no nationwide register of cars - this is why they have the compulsory carrying of documents law, because there's absolutely no way for them to check otherwise.

Beats me why they need people to carry their driving licenses though - they've got in-car access to that database.

Merged: What documents do I need, as a Norwegian student in Poland, if I want to buy a car from a private person?

I want to buy a car in Poland, the country i live in 90% of the year, but I am not sure what documents I need to buy the car and what I need to get an insurance. Is it enough with my passport nr to get the bill of sale? Or do I need some other documents? etc.

Any advice will be highly appreciated!

You must sign a sale contract (umowa sprzedaży, sometimes incorrectly called umowa kupna-sprzedaży) with him. There is no official pattern, but you will find examples on the Internet. Normally you usually include the PESEL number, the address and the number of the identity document of both the seller and the buyer. If you don't have the PESEL number, it should be enough with the passport number and the address, but I am not sure if PESEL is not necessary to register the car.

If the car was registered in Poland before and you are going to register it in Poland now, it's enough.

The seller has to give you the registration certificate (dowód rejestracyjny) of the car, the vehicle card (karta pojazdu) and the insurance documents. The obligatory civil liability insurance is automatically passed from the seller to the buyer, but the prices depend on the person who is the car owner (for example you pay more if you are younger), so it might be so that you will have to pay something extra, even though the insurance paid by the old owner is still valid for a few months. Contact the insurance company in which the car is insured. If you buy the car from a private owner, apart from registering it, you also have to go to the tax office and pay the tax (2% of the price).

Be careful while buying the car - it's good to have a specialist with you who will check it's technical condition. Don't trust the km counter (it's common to modify its indication before selling the car), rather look at the wear-out of the surface of the elements like the steering wheel, the gear changing lever or the seats to determine how intensively the car has been used. If you buy the car from a reseller (komis) and you want to take the car for an inspection to a local car service, also be careful, it happens often that the reseller and the local car service owner know each other well and the closest car service won't necessarily tell you the truth about the car. It seems to be better to buy a car from a private owner than from a reseller.

There is also a lot of sale offers for cars imported from Germany, and sometimes from other EU countries. They may look very good, since the prices are usually lower, but you will have to pay quite a high tax, do a lot of paperwork, and those cars aren't usually in a perfect condition.

Here (in Polish) is everything you need to register a car: motofakty.pl/artykul/wszystko-o-rejestracji-samochodow-oplaty-podatki-dokumenty-poradnik.html

In short, you need:
- a filled-in registration form (you will find it in the office where you are registering the car, or you can print it and fill it in by yourself before - DOC: bip.um.wroc.pl/attachments/download/13188, PDF: bip.um.wroc.pl/attachments/download/13809)

- proof of owning the car (usually the sale contract)
- the old registration certificate with a valid (not expired) confirmation of a technical inspection - a car must pass such an inspection every year
- vehicle card (unless it's an old car, from the times when such cards weren't issued yet)
- ID card or another identity document (passport in your case)
- the old license plates

If the car was registered in the same county (powiat) before as you live, you pay 81 zł for everything. Otherwise, you need new license plates, and you pay 180,50 zł altogether. Also, if the car still has old black license plates with white letters, you will have to pay the higher price and get new plates - even if it was registered in the same county before. If you have white license plates with a blue bar on the left, then they can stay if the car will be registered in the same county as before, regardless of whether they have the Polish flag on the blue bar, or the EU flag.

If the car is very old and doesn't have the vehicle card, you will also have to pay 75,50 zł for issuing one.

After doing all the formalities and paying all the fees, you get a temporary registration certificate valid for 30 days. In this time they will print the proper registration certificate, which you will have to receive in the same office where you registered the car. If there is such a need, you will get also new license plates, a new sticker with the registration number for the windscreen and a new vehicle card (the last one only if you didn't have any before, the vehicle card is a document which stays with the car forever). If the old license plates stay, then they will only put new legalisation stickers on them.

What if the pesel number is not there?

I have found some information that the PESEL number on the car sale contract is obligatory from 1. Januar 2016 to register the car, but maybe it doesn't concern foreigners not having this number (as for example this possibility is taken into account in the car registration form). I couldn't find any detailed information.

Hi Student Poland,

Did you manage to buy a car afterall?