I am in desperate need for advice. We have lived in spain for 3 years we bought a second hand car that cost the earth and swore we would never buy from spain again, so i researched the market and purchased a 3year old car from france. Im having it delivered next week and would like to know if anyone else has done this and what are the procedures i have to go through to bring it in to spain and register it, and do i have to pay import tax even though its from france????? thanks guys your comments are gratefully received

Hi and welcome to the boards…

I would have thought that the procedures for importing a French car are the same as for any other EU country; import tax will almost certainly be due since you haven’t owned the vehicle for six month prior to importing it. Having said that you can operate the vehicle in Spain for six months before you are required to re-register so you might be able to get away with it…

It is also worth noting that in the village where I live one of my neighbours has three French registered cars, one of which is parked on the street and in plain view 24/7. To the best of my knowledge he has never taken any of them back to France for a French MOT…and they are all of an age where they need an MOT…

A Spanish MOT would be just as invalid on his cars as it is on a Brit reg car…so I guess his insurance (if he has any!) would be null and void in the event of an accident…

The procedures for re-registering are quite straightforward and well documented on this forum.

My suggestion would be bring it in and hold-off re-registering until it’s been here for six months in order to avoid import tax… make sure that all of the French documentation is up to date, and valid for the next six months…and that the purchase receipt shows French VAT paid…

Maybe someone else can add to this…

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I imported using carimportinspain.com
Didn?t pay import tax and they were a pleasure to deal with. Based in Alicante and Barcelona I think.

The other guy is basically right. You can import a car as a change of residence if you have owned it for six months . You need advice though from a specialist as there are plenty of other papers to get together and hoops to jump through.

Thanks guys for your replies. I have been in touch with carimportinspain they have been great, i have decided to register it in uk as it just seems alot easier and after the 6months of having it we will re register on spanish plates. many thanks all

What if the car is currenly in the UK registerd on Spanish plates, if it has a Spanish ITV that is current surely it would just be a case of transfer of ownership?