Is there a 'right' time to have a car matriculated? I'm thinking like with property, if you sign say on 30th December you have to pay the previous full years taxes, yet if you sign on the 1st January you pay nothing?

We are looking to get our car done when it comes over ( probably July) but don't want to get punished with paying road tax for a full year that it wasn't in the country!

see my reply in the other thread, but Matriculaton is the same at any time of the year.
road tax is payable to the local Ayuntamiento and is in most cases less per annum than a quarter of the UK tax. But it does depend on the CO2 rating of the car. (think this was an EU thing as both Spain and UK use a similar system)
Not sure if it is cheaper as you are only required to pay for the year from 1st Jan to the local Ayuntamiento. so plan for a matriculation in Jan should be about the right time. Mine was in Feb.

hth

Hi

The year is divided up into quarters when matriculating a car. So if you buy or rematriculate your car on the 31st March you will pay a whole year. One day later you will pay three quarters.
Davexf

They do not use the same system. In the UK road tax is based on CO2 emissions, in Spain (or at least in my area) it is still based on "fiscal horsepower" which is essentially based on engine size.

The matriculation tax in Spain is based on CO2 emissions and in many cases is now zero.

I changed my car over in December last year.

I had to pay 3 months road tax. For me this was just under 22€ For a year it will be 87€. I think the calculation is based on both power and emissions. As I would pay £250 per year in the UK I was very happy. You have to ITV the car first though as they use those documents to work out the road tax.

As far as matriculating the car itself was concerned, in order to avoid paying import tax of several hundred Euros, I had to do it within 60 days of signing on the padron. Also, you have to prove when you bought the car and that when you did buy it you were resident in the UK. Luckily I had my invoice with the car and also some tax documents which proved my previous UK address.

Depending on the type of car, you may or may not have to have various modifications done. Again I was lucky in that my cars headlights had a switchable beam which passed the test and I'd had the nearside rear fog light connected so that wasn't a problem either. The type approval is printed on the VIN plate too so again that wasn't a problem. All in all it cost about 500€ to change over, yet a friend of mines cost 2000€ as it was a Ford Mondeo and he had to do various mods as well as copping for import tax.

Thank you all, the year being divided into quarters and only paying for the part year in which it is done was the answer I was lookikng for. I just have to work out the dates now, get it as close to October as possible which is when its UK tax expires!

Ours is a 1.6 Picasso petrol, we've been quoted 1300€ all in for the change to be done-plates paperwork itv etc including a change of headlights to the correct pattern. So just need to drive it over later in the year.

1 last question. Is the padron actually required? I've been told that it is not, as long as you have proof of your address (esquitura) This was a question I forgot to put to the person doing the transfer for us.

... and rear fog light and reversing light - or have you two of each?

I think you need to be on the padron - how else can you show that you live here? The escritura just shows that you own a property.

You do not have to live in Spain to own a Spanish registered car so why should it be different to import one?

It's only different if you import one and want to avoid the matriculation tax.

For that you have to prove you have just moved over permanently to get that concession and I assume being on the padron is part of that process.

Hi

The authorities will need proof of your address in Spain. Either rental or homeowner. From memory Spain got told by the EU that people with holiday homes had to be allowed to own cars
Davexf

Yes, being on the padron is definitely part of the process but I cannot remember at what point it is needed because it is important not to go on it too soon. There is a distinct order in which to do things in order to not pay the matriculation tax unless it has changed since we did ours in 2006.

Rosemary

When I purchased my first car in Spain back in 2000 the requirement was NIE plus money.

in 2006 I needed padron and NIE iirc .... plus money

I recently bought a new car and the green residents certificate was acceptable.