Customs and Household Goods Relief for Moving to Sweden

If you file yourself, you fill in Tullverket’s manual form, Underlag för manuell tulldeklaration, which supports the declaration, and you may need a supplementary sheet if the load holds several types of goods. In goods item 1 you give commodity code 9905 00 00 00 and the additional procedure code C01. If you claim at the earliest six months before the move, you give C42 instead.

A claim made in advance also needs document codes 401Q and 402Q in the field for supporting documents, followed by the planned move date written ÅÅÅÅMMDD, meaning year, month, day. For an ordinary claim the code Tullverket gives for that field is 401F, with the form’s title beside it. The remaining codes are the national additional code X001 for vehicles, caravans, vessels and aircraft, X002 for other moving goods, transaction type 9 and preference (förmån) code 100. Under the additional procedure the list also shows F45, with no explanation of what it is for.

Goods under a ban or a restriction do not go under 9905 00 00 00. Tullverket says they are declared under their own commodity codes in chapters 1 to 97. It also points to its guide to the form’s fields (opens in a new window) (updated 3 September 2026). That guide gives 100 for goods with no preferential origin, does not mention F45, and says a private person should always give the code PRIVA in the field for supporting documents, so ask which codes your customs officer wants beside 401F.

If you travel with your things, you give the documents to a customs officer at the border. If you collect them from a warehouse, you take the documents to the nearest customs office for notification and clearance. The officer helps you make a customs declaration from them, and you show that declaration when you collect the goods.

Goods that reach Sweden are put in a warehouse, and Tullverket’s list of questions and answers (opens in a new window) (updated 23 September 2026) says the warehouse keeper or the carrier will contact you. In a driving example it also warns that many customs offices close in the evening and at weekends.

If an agent or a moving company files for you, the same list says the agent handles the customs side provided you have given it the signed form and the supporting documents. The relief page is blunt about who hands things in: Det är ombudet eller flyttfirman som lämnar in alla dokument till Tullverket. That is our translation: “It is the agent or the moving company that hands in all the documents to Tullverket.”

A road move through other EU countries needs a transit procedure first. Tullverket’s example is a move from Switzerland through Germany and Denmark: start a transit in Switzerland or at the first EU customs office, post a security (garanti) that covers duty and VAT, and carry a packing list, preferably in English. On arrival you show the transit, the list and the goods at a Swedish customs office. The example names no UK route, so ask your removal company how a load from the UK is covered.

Not necessarily. Tullverket’s English page answers the same question with “No”, saying you can prove your move by other means than the population register. Its Swedish list of questions says that if you were not registered in Sweden during your time abroad you should in most cases show a move notification to Skatteverket, and that someone who has never lived in Sweden can show, for example, a residence permit or proof of a right of residence.

Those are separate steps at the tax agency. Skatteverket’s page on moving to Sweden (opens in a new window) (page metadata: modified 7 July 2026) says to send the notification no earlier than 14 days before you move, one for each person, each child included, and that it takes about five weeks before a case officer is assigned. The identity check at a service office comes after you have moved. Tullverket’s list of proofs names the registration decision only as one example.

Skatteverket also says a citizen of a country outside the EU or EEA must hold a valid residence permit card, uppehållstillståndskort, and that special rules apply to UK citizens who lived in Sweden with a right of residence before 31 December 2020. The customs form asks about permits and rights of residence too. We give no immigration advice here and cannot say which route fits you.

Yes. Tullverket counts a car or other vehicle as personal property, and its national code X001 marks vehicles, caravans, vessels and aircraft on the declaration. If the household load arrives first and the car later, you declare the two shipments separately, each with the manual-declaration form, the signed Försäkran and the supporting documents.

The same list of questions adds four points on cars. A leased car qualifies only if you signed the contract yourself, not your employer, and the contract shows that you use it privately for at least six months where you lived outside the EU. There is no limit on the number of cars, but with more than one Tullverket checks that you will not use them commercially. The drive home does not count as time in use. A car registered in your partner’s name can still qualify if you meet the conditions.

A car with foreign plates may be used for one week from the day it enters Sweden. After that you must apply for temporary registration or have it approved at a registration inspection, registreringsbesiktning. For those steps Tullverket sends you to Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish transport agency.

Whether the car travels in a container or on a roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ship is settled with your removal company, and our guide to shipping a car explains how the two differ. We’re an enquiry and introduction service, so we don’t ship vehicles ourselves.

They mean different things, and Transportstyrelsen says so on its page on the reason for import (opens in a new window) (last updated 24 April 2026): Trots att namnet är detsamma handlar det om olika saker. The word means a removal item. Tullverket’s flyttsak concerns the charges at clearance. Transportstyrelsen’s eases the technical requirements at the registration inspection.

The tests differ too. Besides the unbroken year of normal home outside the EU, Tullverket asks that the goods belonged to you and were used for six months before you left. Transportstyrelsen asks that you lived abroad for at least a year, owned the vehicle for at least a year and used it abroad for at least a year, shown by papers such as a tenancy or employment contract, the registration certificate and a foreign insurance certificate. It decides whether you meet the test, and the inspection company then decides whether the exemption is needed.

For its origin check, ursprungskontroll, Transportstyrelsen’s page on imports from outside the EU (opens in a new window) (last updated 24 April 2026) asks for proof of customs clearance that carries a Swedish customs ID and a vehicle detail such as the chassis number. It has a Brexit paragraph for vehicles from the UK and says a vehicle registered in and imported from Northern Ireland is exempt from customs clearance. The Tullverket relief pages we read do not mention Northern Ireland.

Tullverket counts a pet as personal property, but the animal has health rules of its own, which Jordbruksverket, the Swedish board of agriculture, publishes. Its page on dogs from countries outside the EU (opens in a new window) (last reviewed 18 August 2026) lists the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland, with the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and says waits after rabies vaccination and antibody test can mean up to four months before a dog can travel.

The page also says the owner is always responsible for meeting every requirement, that a dog with wrong or incomplete papers can be refused entry and in the worst case be put down, and that a dog arriving direct from outside the EU should be planned to arrive only through Arlanda or Landvetter airport. We did not read the page for cats. For the wider rules on travelling with an animal, see our overview of moving abroad with a pet.

Goods can go ahead of you. Tullverket asks for a declaration that you intend to move your normal home within six months, and for a security (garanti) covering duty, VAT and other taxes. You claim with code C42, at the earliest six months before the planned move. No Tullverket page we read gives the size of the security. Article 9(1) of the EU regulation leaves its type and amount to the competent authorities.

Tullverket’s English page on moving to and from Sweden (opens in a new window) (updated 9 October 2026) lists the same two steps and adds a customs declaration and a form it calls “Declaration for Relief from Customs Duty”. The Swedish page does not use that title, and the English page does not say whether it means the Swedish form, so ask Tullverket which form an advance claim needs.

A claim can also follow your arrival. The list of questions says goods imported within a year from the day you moved can still get relief, and the relief page counts that year from the day you come to Sweden to settle.

Two missing-form cases are covered. If you have not filled in the form when you reach the border, you do it there. If a moving company’s container reaches the border without a completed, signed form, you pay full duty, VAT and other taxes on the goods unless Tullverket promptly receives one.

Relief is for goods you will use in Sweden. If you move to another EU country by way of Sweden, Tullverket says, you transit the goods to that country and claim relief there.

You may not sell, rent out, lend, give away or pledge goods that received relief during the first year. If you do anyway, you must tell Tullverket and pay duty, VAT and other taxes on them. The relief page adds Du kan inte få undantag från den här regeln, our translation being “You cannot get an exception to this rule.”

Which day starts that year is worded three ways. The relief page says from when you were granted relief, medgavs. The form you sign says from when the customs declaration was handed in, gavs in, and cites Article 8 of the EU regulation. Article 8 itself, in its Swedish text (opens in a new window), counts 12 months from the day the declaration for release for free circulation was received, togs emot. If these fall on different days, ask Tullverket which one it uses for your load.

Cars have their own wording. The list of questions says you may not transfer the vehicle to anyone in any way during the first year from when relief was granted for it, and adds Du kan inte få dispens från det här tidskravet, “You cannot get a dispensation from this time requirement.” To sell, lend, pledge, rent out or give the car away, you must first notify Tullverket, because duty, VAT and other taxes are then payable.

Tullverket sets two tests before the move. Either you have never lived in the EU, Sweden included, or your normal home was outside the EU for an unbroken period of at least one year. Your things must also have belonged to you for at least six months before you left for Sweden, and you or someone in your household must have used them for six months at your home outside the EU.

The relief page gives one example of a normal home: living permanently with your family and working outside the EU for an unbroken period of at least a year. Tullverket’s own rules, TFS 2012:3 (opens in a new window), add general advice: judge it on all the facts, by where the person has the permanent centre of interests (intressecentrum), weighing family ties, housing, finances and whether the job is permanent or temporary. The questions page uses the word intressecenter when it says that studying abroad does not by itself give relief. You must show your normal home was in that country for at least 12 months, for example with a residence permit or local registration.

The relief page does not state that you must plan to stay. The questions page and the English page do: you must intend to live in Sweden for at least one year. You move on the day you come to Sweden to settle.

Households can arrive in stages. Tullverket answers a couple who had been in the USA for 13 months, where one partner and a child go home first, that both partners can get relief if the family had lived and worked outside the EU for at least 12 months and the conditions are met. For someone whose normal home was outside the EU, shorter breaks have no time limit, but you must still show the unbroken year.

Tullverket’s list of questions says its main principle is to make no exceptions to the time requirements, but you can send a written application, which it decides case by case. It adds Generellt sett ska du ha en situation där du inte själv har kunnat råda över omständigheterna, meaning that in general you should be in a situation where you could not control the circumstances yourself.

The EU regulation itself allows exceptions in at least three places: Article 4(a) for the six months of ownership and use, in special cases justified by the circumstances; Article 5(2) where you clearly intended to live outside the EU for 12 months; and Article 7(1), whose 12 months for bringing the goods in apply except in special cases.

The statutes give that practice a basis. Förordning (1994:1605) (opens in a new window) lets Tullverket allow exceptions from the time limits in the EU regulation (section 14), names it the competent authority unless the act or the ordinance says otherwise (section 12) and leaves exceptions for exceptional political circumstances to the government (section 17). Lag (1994:1547) (opens in a new window), section 1, says the relief rules themselves sit in Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, and the form cites its Articles 3 to 11.

VAT follows the duty relief. Lag (1994:1551) (opens in a new window), chapter 2, section 2, grants relief from import tax on goods that would be exempt from duty under the EU regulation or lag (1994:1547), apart from the goods listed in section 3, and section 11 applies their wording to the tax. Section 10 repeats the duty to tell Tullverket without delay, and to pay, if the conditions lapse. Förordning (1994:1605), section 11, says the same for duty.