Vehicle (from non-EU) registration in Poland by foreigner after driving for 6 months here

Dear expats, need your experience in following question. We are moving to Poland from non-EU county, coming by car and going to obtain Karta Pobytu there. I can't find reliable info on car registration procedure after 6 month of being in Poland. Some-one says it's not obligatory for foreigners, others mention that the car can be arrested and customs clearance applied, especially if you drive to other EU county for a holiday, as traffic police pays special attention to foreign cars and you will be probably stopped for documents check.

Is there any-one driving a foreign car after 6 month period?
Also I wonder if going home and back to poland by car "resets" the timing?

Driving with foreign plates does not increase your chances of being pulled over in Poland. I see cars with non-EU plates all the time - especially from Ukraine and Belarus. You just have to make sure that you have valid insurance that works in Poland.

I can't say anything about registration of the car though. I only know that you may need to pay customs when you finally decide to take that step.

You don,t need to pay customs if you are emigrating/immigrating to Poland.......and can prove that you have owned the vehicle for at least a year previously to arriving in Poland. You can have this car considered by the law of Poland, to be part of your belongings as you move to Poland to re-settle. I,m not sure if that means you have to be coming to live permanently, or if there is a time limit...say 5 years???

Well, I would have expected that when you had the thought about how long a person would stay in Poland and how the taxman would be able to determine their length of stay, that your common sense would kick in. Apparently not.

So, no, you are not tax exempt based on how long you stay and your car most certainly won't be treated as a household item or clothing article that you bring with you when moving to Poland.

The amount you have to pay depends on how old the car is. If it is older than 6 months you will only pay excise duty which will depend on several factors such as age of car, engine size etc.

If the first registration of the car was less than 6 month ago you pay normal VAT rate of the purchasing price on top of that.

In any case whether or not the taxman wants your money for your imported car does not depend on how long you will stay in Poland.

We brought 2 classic vehicles....drove one and had the other shipped over in a truck with the rest of our belongings.....we declared them as part of our belongings and as such have not had to pay duty on either of the vehicles....they are both classics with a value in the region of 15-20,000 Euros. Maybe it is because they are classics...but one of them did not qualify as a classic until we had been in Poland for 2 years we then re-registered it as a classic.??? We did research this thoroughly before we came? the duty would have been an annoyance, but we were glad to see that if declared as belongings and owned for 12 months previously...we were and are still exempt. Whew!!! one of the engines is 5.6 Litres...that might have called for some duty eh??

I do not know if you did. Are you asking me or are you telling that this is what you did?

I am surprised, but interested. Can you show me where, when you did your research, you found your information about declaring your car as personal belonging without having to pay excise duty?

Police maybe in Germany, but not in Poland. More likely Border Patrol or Customs stop you while hunting for contraband.

That's because in Germany there is a road tax to be paid unlike Poland where a direct road tax does not exist for passenger cars. But it is not the Police that will do the checks in Germany but mobile units of customs "Zoll" . If stopped and found out that you are driving a foreign registered car for longer than the allowed period while residing in Germany you will face charges of tax evasion.

our car is almost 10 years old


When you say "residing in Germany" do you mean living there, or just being there (for instance for a holiday from Poland)? So does it mean that if we don't register the car in Poland, it's better not to access Germany on that car at all? Germany is located on the way to other EU countries and it's a problem..we love travelling

Living there. If you stay in Germany for more than a year, you have to register your car in Germany and therefore also pay road tax. If you just travel through Germany or stay a few days, there won't be any problem.

My wife being Polish, did all the research, but I threw the question over my shoulder just now and she says she doesn't have time to dig it out, but it is all there in the rules and regulations, just ask the right questions. All I know is we didn't pay any tax on our vehicles and she says it is because you can declare them as part of your baggage and effects.....but you must be able to prove (documentary evidence = bills of sale, registration documents in your name etc) to someone.....probably the local tax office, I know that whilst carrying out the initial registration we made a couple of trips to the Tax office which was just around the corner. A bit of scurrying to and fro, some form filling.....but well worth it not to pay taxes eh?