Moving between Sweden and the UK? ClickMoves explains what you need to do
We’ve had a lot of enquiries recently, from Swedes relocating between the UK and Sweden, regarding the documentation that is now required since BREXIT for shipping their household goods and personal effects back to Sweden. And, if they will need to pay any tax and duties. If you go online to research this, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information, so we thought that we’d ask our friends at ClickMoves who specialize in removal services between the UK and Sweden, to help us explain what the rules are.
“Now that the UK is no longer part of the EU, there is quite a bit of additional customs clearance documentation required in order to ensure that our clients avoid paying import tax and duties” ClickMoves explained. “In the weeks after BREXIT there was a lot of confusion, but fortunately the Swedish authorities acted quickly to provide us with very clear and concise requirements for removal services to and from Sweden.
Moving from the UK to Sweden
Essentially Swedish customs want to establish that the individual has a genuine reason to import their household goods and personal effects, and that they are not a dealer or a trader trying to avoid paying import taxes and intending to sell these goods in Sweden. So they ask for:
- Proof that the importer has lived outside of Sweden for more than 12 months. ClickMoves normally asks for 12 months of UK Council Tax bills, or utility bills for this purpose.
- A completed Swedish Customs form (TV 740.45), which requires the importer to declare that they will not sell, or hire out any items that they are importing to Sweden.
- And lastly a document to support their status in Sweden, such as an employment contract, or a lease agreement on a property.
ClickMoves generally apply for pre-approval from the Swedish Customs authorities but that does take a bit of time, so in certain cases we present the documents along with an inventory of the cargo at the border crossing. Most of the time as long as the paperwork is in order our drivers get waived through quite quickly, but our vehicles are sometimes randomly inspected and for this reason we are very clear about what are clients can, and cannot import to Sweden. For example clients sometimes ask us to move their household plants, a wine collection, and food products, but these are in need of special import licenses and incur heavy taxes.
Moving from Sweden to the UK
For Swedes moving to the UK, the process is a little bit easier as all we require is a Transfer of Residence (ToR) number which can be applied for through the UK government website Application for transfer of residence relief (ToR1) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ClickMoves have found this department extremely helpful and efficient, but do warn clients that it may take up to 2 weeks to receive ToR numbers, and that importers need to have lived in the UK for less than 12 months in order to qualify for ToR import tax relief.
ClickMoves also advised us that even though they have trucks going between the UK and Sweden 3 or 4 times a week at the moment, it is an extremely busy period so if you are planning to relocate in the coming months you should start planning sooner rather than later.
If you need any advice on your move, please contact enquiries@clickmoves.com.
