Certificate of conformity and tax clearance: do not confuse them

Two documents with nothing in common

	Certificate of conformity	Tax clearance
Who issues it	The vehicle manufacturer	The tax authority of the country of registration
What it proves	That the vehicle conforms to a type approved in the EU	That the vehicle’s VAT position has been settled
What it covers	Technical characteristics: weights, engine, emissions, dimensions	The transaction: price, date, status of seller and buyer
Where to get it	From the manufacturer — that is our job	From the competent tax authority
Scope	European, valid in every Member State	National

The confusion arises because both usually turn up at the same moment, in the same file. They do not replace one another: obtaining one never excuses the other.

Why VAT comes into it

When a vehicle crosses an intra-EU border, the tax question is where VAT is due. The answer depends on several factors: the age of the vehicle, its mileage, whether the seller is a business or a private individual, and the status of the buyer.

A vehicle considered new for tax purposes — a definition that does not match everyday usage — is not treated like a used one. That is exactly what the tax clearance settles, before registration can be applied for.

The thresholds, the forms and the competent office vary between Member States. Contact the tax authority of your country of registration, which will set out the steps.

In which order to proceed

1. The purchase Collect the complete registration document of the country of origin and a sales contract quoting the chassis number.
2. The certificate of conformity Start the request at signing: it is the longest step, because it depends on the manufacturer. See the turnaround guide.
3. The tax clearance Handled in parallel with the tax authority; it does not wait for the certificate.
4. The roadworthiness test Required depending on the age of the vehicle and the rules of the country of registration.
5. The registration application It brings all the documents together. That is where a single missing item blocks everything.

The point to remember: run steps 2 and 3 in parallel. Many files fall behind because the certificate request was only started once everything else had been gathered.

The three mistakes that cost the most time

• Waiting until everything else is ready before requesting the certificate. This is the most expensive and the most common mistake. Tax formalities and the roadworthiness test take days; the certificate depends on a third party whose calendar is not negotiable. A request started three weeks late means three weeks of an idle vehicle.
• Confusing the two documents at the counter. Turning up with the tax clearance in the belief that it covers the technical side sends the file back to square one. The two answer different questions and are examined by different departments.
• Copying the chassis number by hand. One wrong character and the request comes back from the manufacturer with no result. Photograph field E of the foreign registration document rather than retyping it.

A word about vocabulary

The names change from one country to the next, which does not help. Depending on the Member State, the tax document is called a tax clearance, a fiscal certificate or something else again, and it is not always issued by the same department. The certificate of conformity, by contrast, carries the same name and the same definition everywhere, because it comes from European law: certificat de conformité in French, Übereinstimmungsbescheinigung in German, gelijkvormigheidsattest in Dutch.

That is a useful marker: if a document changes name from one country to another, it is probably national. If it carries the same definition everywhere, it is European — and that is the one we obtain.