fyfin

I keep hearing that you don't need to worry about car tax in Spain on a Spanish registered vehicle until you actually come to sell it when you can then (or the buyer) pay the lot from previous years.
I also hear no reminders are sent out when I have just received my first reminder having purchased a new car last year.

What I'm not sure about is whether you face the risk of a fine if you do not pay your annual fee to the local town hall as I intend to do every year as I have always intended to do things legally irrespective of which country I live in or how good the authorities are at collecting the taxes.

There is no much misinformation around and it would be good if someone here knew the legal position regarding this tax.

snikpoh

The legal position is that car tax MUST be paid annually.

There will always be those sh*ts who believe that any tax should be avoided at all costs!

Domino

The problem is that (at the moment) Spain doesn't have the all joined up system the UK has with Road Tax, Insurance, MOT all being information available at DVLC. One being out of date/unpaid will throw up warnings and they are what the police will stop you for. I only found out about this when I tried to renew my tax online and it was rejected because of no insurance
Turned out the insurance company had mistyped the registration by one letter and I hadn't noticed.

You can in reality have a car for years and never have paid the tax. As unknowing individuals have been caught for this when buying a car second hand that is why there are frequent reminders here on BE.

IMHO if someone isnt paying their car tax then they probably aren't paying something else - such as insurance
but this is something you should carry a copy of in the car as any roadside stop by Trafico will probably highlight this.

spainrico

Car tax is known as IVTM - Impuesto sobre vehículos de tracción mecánica and is due on all vehicles. It is typically less than the UK and I pay around 130€ for a Kia Sportage. (But of course there is transfer tax to pay when a vehicle is sold)

Systems and efficiency vary across the regions (there is a surprise) but doubtless with the drive to collect tax this will change.

Yes it can be dodged for a time - and it is seldom 'checked' ie at ITV or insurance renewal time but as with all taxes it is as certain as death.

malagaman

Also bear in mind that if the tax is left year after year then fines are added to the original cost each year it's not paid so the 'final bill' will be much greater than the original amount owed. If you don't get reminders for your tax then just go to your local town hall and find the office where all the bills are paid and present your vehicle paperwork and the bill will be printed out to be paid at the bank or, you can set up a DD to pay it in the future. In our region you can't actually pay the bill until May-September even though it runs from 1st Jan-31st December so whoever is the registered keeper on 1st Jan is responsible for that years tax !!

Fred James

The key difference between Spain and the UK with regard to road tax is that, in Spain, it is a municipal tax not a state tax.

As a result the Guardia isn't really interested in whether you are taxed or not - unless they are having a really bad day.

Michael74

I have just paid my car tax today €51.11 at the local bank. I receive it regularly by post from the Ajuntymento. In our village, if you don't pay any bill issued by them you get a visit from the Police locale !! as I found out when I forgot to pay my Basura.

Whilst on the subject, a question... If I moved to another area, could I still pay my car tax to the present Town Hall or would I have to pay in the new area.

Rosemary

As it is a municipal tax it will need to be paid in the area that you move to. I paid mine last week and set up a new direct debit for it to save me that hassle in the future.

Rosemary

scampicat

We organised the DD for our tax to be taken out and they took it once evey two years! So it was often one year in arrears.

They had just taken it for 2010 and 2011 when we left in December 2011 . We re-registered the car onto British plates in May 2012 and sold it in the UK in September 2012.. Hopefully they will not come after us for the few months. We have no Spanish Bank account now since last summer.

Fred James

And don't be surprised if the amount is radically different.

I moved from Nerja to La Herradura and it trebled! I now pay more than I would in the UK!

amideislas

It varies from place to place, but here, they never send out notices. Never.

You are obliged to check with some local office to see if you owe anything. Otherwise, you'll never hear from them, and they will never collect, until...

When you sell the car, any outstanding taxes and fines must be paid. A lot of people don't tell you when you buy a car, and so when you go to get it put in your name, blammo, you get hit with the back-taxes. So it's important to find out if there are back taxes due before you buy a car here.

ITV never checks if tax is paid either (but I reckon that will change).

Many people here buy old cars and never pay the tax. When it finally develops terminal cancer, they just take it to the place that crushes it, which officially takes it off the road making it untaxable, and nobody ever comes after the tax.

And we wonder why Spain has economic problems.

Fred James

And on another thread people are paranoid that if they declare their assets they will have a problem!

fyfin

You know I can't help thinking that the Spanish economy would be in a much better position, or at least the town halls, if theyt were just a bit better at collecting taxes. It seems the Spanish simply don't pay anything if they can avoid it and the ex pat Brits don't seem to know what they have to pay or manage to confuse by living here 80% of the time and pretending they still live in the UK.

I still get friends telling me the non residents tax is not to be paid unless you rent your property out which, of course, is a load of nonsense.

God help some of these people, Spanish included, if the authorities ever get their heads together and start being more efficient at collecting taxes due!!

Domino

well with good reason if it is two or even one car with a value of over €50k

Cadiza

We had unexplained money taken out from our Spanish bank, the agencia tributaria took 3 separate payments out within 2 months.

We recently visited an old house we lived in when we first moved to Spain and there we found the post for the Car Tax for the amounts taken from our bank accounts.

In 2 months they took 3 years worth of car tax, we wasn't aware of the car tax hence why we didn't know who or why the money went out of the bank.