Rules on bring in a car ........
When importing a vehicle into Spain the following taxes and duty must be paid.
Value Added Tax (IVA) at 16 per cent is payable on cars imported from outside the European Union or on any vehicle from within the EU, on which value added tax has yet not been paid.
A registration tax (impuesto municipal sobre circulacion de vehiculos) of 12 per cent is payable on vehicles imported into Spain and is calculated on the vehicle’s current value which is based on the price which would have been paid new, had the vehicle been purchased in Spain. As you would imagine, there are also exceptions and these are where petrol-engine capacity is less than 1600 cc and diesel-engine capacity is less than 2 litres when the tax is 7 per cent. This tax now includes 4WD vehicles which previously were taxed at a lower rate.
Import duty of 10 per cent is payable on vehicles imported from outside of the European Union.
The amount payable for each of the above taxes is based on the original price of the vehicle with a reduction for each year of its age up to ten years, e.g. 80 per cent after the first year, 70 per cent after two years, 50 per cent after four years, reducing to 20 per cent after ten years. If you wish to import a vehicle into Spain you must be either a resident or applied for it, own property in Spain or have an agreement to rent for a minimum of one year.
Non residents from outside of the EU may import a vehicle registered outside the EU for a total period of six months, which need not be continuous, within a calendar year. Again, there are exceptions but these are concerned primarily with conditions applicable to work and employment.
The very simple truth of the matter is that if you are contemplating importing a vehicle into Spain, then you need to know exactly what you are doing if you intend to carry out the legal requiremnets yourself. For a relatively modest sum you can employ a Gestor to do the work for you. Although you can often find offers for this task in the local papers. Or if you have bought a property with my assitance I will be only too pleased to advise on this and point you in the right direction if I cannot help myself.
As with most other EU states, Spain too has a road tax which must be paid on behalf of each and every vehicle using Spanish roads.
There is no national road tax; instead, each municipality sets its own rate although the minimum and maximum which can be charged is defined by law.
Large towns and cities tend to have higher rates for road tax and where the population exceeds 100,000 it is possible to find that the rate is twice that of the minimum. In relation to the UK, the average Spanish road tax is little more than an inconvenience and is among the lowest within the EU. Over the past 10 years it has been increasing and there is little to suggest it will not continue to do so. Road tax is based on what is known as the fiscal horsepower of the vehicle.
For the average expatriate, road tax works out at about half the UK rate. Road tax is usually paid to the local authority/Ayuntamiento sometime between March and May of each year. You should check with your own authority to find out when and how it should be paid.
As with all forms of Spanish tax, the ultimate responsibility for paying it on time rests with you. In other words it is up to you to make sure it is paid. If you do not pay when you sell the vehicle it will become due so there is no escape!
There are numerous ways this tax can be paid. Most have been calculated to keep you in queues for hours on end but these can be avoided simply by arranging with the town hall for your bank account to be debited at the appropriate time each year. The surcharge for late payment is 5 per cent for the first month and 20 per cent thereafter. As if this were not enough, the unpaid sum also attracts interest as well! It pays to pay quickly in Spain!
Spanish registered cars are not obliged to display tax disks, as is the case in most countries, so if you have not taxed your car, apart from a mounting fine, no one will know. Based on this thinking, some expats proudly boast that they have not paid car tax in years. They probably haven’t! Sadly, things are changing. Increasingly we are seeing vehicles for which road tax has not been paid being impounded by the police on the instruction of the local municipality. The fines, back taxes and fees involved regularly serve to show that it is far cheaper in the long run to pay road tax.
If you buy a car on which the road tax has been unpaid for several years, the situation is very simple. You now owe the unpaid road tax. If you also choose not to pay it, it will continue to rise by way of fines and arrears, until one day your car will be seized or the debt transferred to your property. As with buying a property in Spain, when buying a car, check to see that it has clear, problem free title.
