In most countries, the price of the car is the main number and the taxes are a percentage on top. Norway is not most countries. Here the tax can be larger than the car, and it is calculated from things that have nothing to do with what you paid.

Get this the wrong way round and you can buy a bargain in Germany that turns out to be the expensive choice in Oslo.

What Norway actually taxes

Two charges apply to a car arriving from Germany: the one-off registration tax (engangsavgift) and VAT, which in Norway has a standard rate of 25%.

The one-off registration tax is the one that decides everything. In the Norwegian Tax Administration's own words, it “is calculated based on the vehicle's tax group, kerb weight, CO2 emissions, NOx emissions and cylinder capacity”, and for some vehicles engine power is included as well.

Read that list again, because of what is not on it: the purchase price. A heavy, thirsty car is taxed heavily whether you paid €20,000 or €80,000 for it.

Why this changes which car you should buy

The practical effect is that the German bargains and the Norwegian bargains are not the same cars.

A large diesel SUV is often excellent value in Germany — plentiful, well equipped, heavily depreciated. It is also heavy, and it emits both CO2 and NOx. In Norway it is hit on all three counts at once. Meanwhile a lighter, lower-emission car that looks unremarkable on a German forecourt can land in Norway at a total cost that makes no sense from the German price alone.

This is the single most useful thing to understand before shopping: in Norway, choose the car by its weight and emissions figures first, and by its German price second.

Buying used works in your favour

Norway reduces the tax on an imported used vehicle. The tax administration calls this the deduction for use — in its words, “a reduction in the one-off registration tax when you import a used vehicle”.

The older and more used the car, the larger that reduction. It is one reason a three- or four-year-old German car frequently makes more sense for Norway than a nearly-new one: you take the German depreciation and a smaller Norwegian tax bill.

A car is not moving house

People relocating to Norway often assume their car travels with their furniture. It does not. A motor vehicle is not treated as household goods, so moving to Norway does not let you bring a car in free of these taxes. Plan for the import as an import, whatever else is in the container.

Do this before you buy anything

Norway publishes an official calculator. Put in the exact car — the kerb weight, the CO2 figure, the NOx figure, the registration date — and it will tell you the tax before you have spent anything.

We do this as a matter of course for every Norwegian enquiry, on the specific car, before it is bought. A quote for Norway that does not include this number is not a quote.

Rates and the emission bands behind them are adjusted in the Norwegian budget, so treat any figure you read anywhere — including here — as needing confirmation on the day.

The German side still helps

Norway is outside the EU, so a car sold for export there can be zero-rated for German VAT, which is 19%. That refund is real money and it is the reason importing is worth the trouble at all. It is also conditional on the export paperwork being correct: how the refund is actually released.

What we handle

We find and inspect the car in Germany, give you the Norwegian tax figure for that exact car before you commit, handle the German export registration and customs declaration, and ship to Oslo or Drammen. The Norwegian declaration and registration are completed in your name with the documents prepared.