What to take, what to leave and what to sell?

Depends on what I decide to take I guess. Potentially a car trip. Or whether to cut out all the big items and try and take things when we are flying back and forwards. Will probably rent our house furnished, so things like beds and couches will stay. The bigger thing that may need to go are things like tv, stereo, power tools, but if these cost £100's to ship over or drive over I'm not sure it's worth it.

the car is a big questionmark for us, it's a 4 year old Vauxhall Astra. But I'm not sure I would want a car over there permanently with the steering wheel on the wrong side as it were. And there is the cost of driving there from Edinburgh - which would not be cheap with potentially  multiple ferry trips.

In case you decide to drive over, DFDS do a freight route from Immingham to just Brevik (just outside Oslo). They take passengers but you have to email them to arrange it. You can find the contact details on the website. It's the only ferry going directly between the UK and Norway. At least for the moment. You will need to get winter tyres for your car if you are going to bring it though. It's not safe/possible to drive otherwise. You should also check your insurance. There are some companies which can ship stuff over for you. It will cost though. Also, remember to bring lots of UK/Norway socket converters so you can plug in any electronics you bring.

David

The astra is petrol (gasoline) I had a look at the import tax and it looked to be around 9000k - £900 which isn't too bad unless I was looking at the wrong website.

Thanks for the ferry tip David, and I was pondering the plug thing,  wouldn't you just switch the plugs on most stuff as opposed to having adapters everywhere.

Has anyone thought about picking up a left hand drive in the UK then drive that over and pay the import tax. (the price for 2nd hand cars in Norway looks ridiculous £4k for a 12 year old VW polo that's done +200,000km - I doubt you could even give that away here)

I think you have looked at the wrong website, or at least not got the whole story. There are several taxes and charges which have to be paid when importing a car. I guess you have only looked at one. The reason second hand cars are so expensive is that the tax on new and/or imported cars is massive. This inflates the price of the second hand cars. I don't think you will save money by importing, otherwise everyone would do it.

Did you have a look here:

http://www.toll.no/templates_TAD/MainTo … anguage=en

You have to pay an import tax, registration tax and value added tax (at 25% of the car's value). There may be some other taxes, but these are at least three of the big ones.

ok, That was the site I looked at and it came back around 9000kr, but that would be import tax only? not registration tax and value added tax.

Yes, I think that will be just one of the taxes. It's not enough for them to just have one tax. You'll soon find out that whatever you are trying to do in Norway, you will have the government interfering. Usually they will want money from you.

You might have a point there Although I think Norway takes it to an extreme. Some of the government's policies could have come straight from the Soviet Union. Also, I fell that personally pay a lot of tax compared to what I get in return. But I mustn't get started on complaining about Norwegian politics.