Importing and registering a car

Motor vehicles must be registered in Belgium within 6 months of their owner’s registration with the municipality. The driver will be issued a national registration number, which is essential to the registration process.

Number plates

Since 16 November 2011, Belgium has been issuing new number plates in line with the European format. These plates bear ruby red lettering on a white background, which is preceded by a number from 1 to 7. You can submit a registration request through the form provided by the company that supplies the car, the seller, the insurer or through Vehicle Registration offices (DIV). It is no longer possible to pick up the plates form a DIV office (Direction des Immatriculations des Véhicules, City Atrium, 56 Rue du Progrès, 1210 Brussels, Tel: 02/ 277 30 50 and 02/277.31.11). Bpost will deliver your plates in exchange for a payment of €20.

Customs clearance

If you intend to import your motor vehicle, first and foremost, you will have to clear the vehicle through customs, ‘customs clearance’ department, 11 Rue de l’Entrepôt,  1020 Brussels, Tel: 02/277.39.29 and bring the following documents:

  • vehicle’s certificate of conformity
  • vehicle invoice
  • foreign registration. Warning! If you need your original foreign registration back when you return to your country of origin, do not forget to mention it to customs and to the motor vehicles department. It is therefore important to ask for information in your own country. You will then receive the registration application form (to be completed in situ) provided with a green label 705 and a stamp.

What about technical inspection?

This depends on your situation. If the vehicle is imported as part of a move not involving a change of ownership of the vehicle, no inspection is required.
Whether your vehicle is imported or not, you will have to take out Belgian insurance, even if the vehicle is covered in Belgium by the insurance taken out in the country of origin. After having completed the registration application form, your insurance company, in turn, will affix a label as proof of ‘third-party liability’ insuranc.

Further information: 
Service Public Fédéral Mobilité et Transport

Taxes?

In theory, no import duties will be levied as long as the following requirements are met: 

  • The vehicle is used.
  • The importer was its owner prior to their arrival in Belgium.

Circulation tax, a one-off payment when the Belgian plates are acquired and an annual road tax, of which the amount is evaluated depending on the vehicle’s horsepower, are to be paid by any holder of a registration number. If, for any reason whatsoever, you no longer own the vehicle but you still have the official plates in your possession, the tax will still have to be paid. When permanently leaving Belgium it is therefore necessary to return the number plates to the Department of Motor Vehicles (D.I.V.). In order to know the amount of the road taxes, read the brochure Tarifs de la taxe de circulation – Transport section lien interne.

Further information: