Car registration
Quick guide:
For those who want to register their vehicle and do not want to get overwhelmed with information.
To start the process we will need the following documents from the official owner of the vehicle:
- copy of the passport
- copy of the NIE number / Residencia document
- copy of Escritura / Rental agreement
- original car registration document
Also, we will need to see the vehicle to record technical and physical details.
Please contact us to make the appointment. We can meet you in our office, or closer to you if you do not wish to travel far. Bring your car and the above documents and we can kick off.
We try to make the process as easy as possible for our clients. We do all the work ourselves!
Important legal information:
RIGHT HAND DRIVE COMMERCIAL VEHICLES CANNOT BE REGISTERED (INCLUDING OPEN PICK-UPS)
THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS ON REGISTRATION OF NON COMMERCIAL VEHICLES
By law, you are entitled to drive your foreign plated car for 183 days or 6 months as a tourist, providing your car is legal on the road according to the law of the home country: it needs to have original registration document, valid Road Tax paid in home country, Technical test of the home country (not Spanish!) and insurance from the home country.
As a tourist means that you don’t have any legal long-term connection with Spain: Residencia, bank account, children in school, etc. If you have either of those, you are considered a RESIDENT, and you have to register your vehicle within TWO months after arriving to Spain. Two months are counted from the moment the OWNER enters the country, NOT the vehicle.
Driving your foreign car
A lot of people don’t bother to register their vehicles because the police have never stopped them yet. They are just delaying the big problem, which every time becomes more complicated.
If you haven’t started the process yet, but continue driving, try not to get sopped by the Police or Guardia Civil, as you can be in trouble. Your car may be impounded on the spot or, if you are lucky, at our house. You may not be able to convince the Police that you do plan to start the registration shortly.
Type approval number
Here it is also called “homologation” number. This number tells authorities that the car meets the European Road specifications and the ITV test can be passed. This number can be found on the documentation, on the vehicle, or on both. Usually the vehicles, which are produced for Europe after year 1999, will have this number. It looks like this: e9*93/81/0015. It is usually stamped on the plate under the bonnet together with the chassis number and weights of the vehicle.
Some vehicles without this number cannot be registered, unless the vehicle is “homologated”.
Homologation
During this process the vehicle is given a personalised Type Approval number by the Spanish “Ministerio de Industria” – Industry Ministry. It may take up to 30-40 days and costs around 1500€. A representative from the Ministry will travel to see the vehicle. He will then provide a list of necessary adjustments that have to be implemented. Official homologation document is then issued that allows the ITV test to be passed.
If you got stopped
Once the Police have decided they want to impound you, they may follow you to your house, or take the car to a Police depot. The impoundment of your vehicle means that you have to start the registration process immediately by payment of the registration tax (now called emissions tax or matriculación tax). Other taxes will have to be paid for non-European vehicles. And the registration has to be finished within two months. The vehicle has to be collected from the depot with certain documentation that proves the start of the process. Please see information below regarding the registration process or contact us for advice on your personal situation.
Registration / emissions / matriculación tax
Current tax level since July 2010 is 16% of the value of the vehicle
How much will be my registration tax?
Here is how the Tax Office (Hacienda) calculate it for second-hand vehicles:
- they take the value of the vehicle new (as if you buy it now new in Spain). Let’s take a BMW X5 4.6I from January 2003 as an example. The value of that vehicle new with 8 cylinders and 4619 CC will be: 67,500€.
- now, they multiply that amount by the percentage depending on the age of the vehicle, which in our case will be 34%, so the value of the vehicle now is: 22,950€.
- and the emissions tax is 16% of the previous amount, which is 3,672€ appr.
Please note that the age percentage above is taken from the moment you are “officially” in Spain (date of NIE number application or property purchase date), so you might be paying taxes for many years back! And no proof will be accepted that the car is not actually worth that much.
The emissions tax for brand new vehicles that arrive to Spain without any registration is calculated on the basis of the official invoice.
For vehicles that come from outside Europe other taxes have to be paid as well:
- Customs /Aduanas tax of 10% – usually payable in the port when the vehicle enters Spain Spain plus expenses of Aduanas agent
- VAT /IVA tax of 18% – has to be paid
So, the younger your car, the higher will be the taxes. You might be paying taxes for many years back as Tax Office estimates the value of the vehicle from the moment you are “officially” in Spain (date of Residencia application or other date they may find relevant).
PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU START THE PROCESS VOLUNTARILY AND AS SOON AS YOU ARRIVE TO SPAIN, YOU MIGHT AVOID PAYMENT OF EMISSIONS TAX TOTALLY.