After the successful purchase of a treasured home, having issued all the resident’s papers, having arranged for children to go to school, people begin to think about ways of moving. This is where the question of transport arises. And the roads are of excellent quality, so they ask: “And what Russian does not like fast driving?”. And there is a need to choose: buy a car here already with Spanish license plates (very convenient, no need to bother with the exchange of state signs); drive out of Germany (as many of our compatriots think, based on the experience of previous years in Russia); or take your own from home, which you will not use there. However, we still received questions related to bringing here cars of the Russian automobile industry.

 Maintenance is carried out in a special center, where a full-time mechanical engineer will examine your car in detail, as if under a microscope. One of the main questions is how much carbon dioxide (CO2) a vehicle emits into the atmosphere. The tax that you have to pay once depends directly on this. This payment is not the only one, there are others, but it will be the most expensive part of the costs associated with registering your car and putting it on the record. Next, we will dwell on them in detail.

Where should you start if you are moving to a new place of residence and want to bring and register your car?

From a real assessment of one’s moral and material expenses. Bureaucracy has not been abolished anywhere, and even the tax on the same car is calculated differently in different places, coincidences also take place here: sometimes the amount of payments depends on how competent a tax specialist you get. Speaking about moral and time costs, we mean that this is not a quick procedure. It takes about three weeks. And in order to shorten it, if you still decide to bring your “swallow”, contact people who know the topic and can help you. Moreover, it is almost impossible to go through all the processes without knowing the language. You also need to have a clear idea of ​​how to properly deregister a car in Russia, which documents to take with you from those that may be needed here, for example, for the customs service, technical inspection,

And remember that persons arriving in Spain for permanent residence have the right to import their car duty-free during the year (cambio de domicilio con française). In this case, he will not have to pay this tax if he complies with the deadlines (after the moment of importing the car into the territory of Spain, the deadline for duty-free registration of the car is 60 days). But here it should be noted that this “privilege” applies to those who can provide proof of residence in their native country for at least 1 year before moving to Spain. Based on this, in our example below, payment for obtaining a customs certificate and VAT are not taken into account.

The next step after receiving a certified certificate at customs is the Ficha Tecnica, i.e. the technical passport of the car with all its parameters and a note that it has passed the ITV and that the level of exhaust gas emissions complies with the standards established for the countries of the Schengen Agreement.

After receiving the appropriate opinion from the specialists of the technical center, you will be given a permit to manage vehicle data (Permiso de Circulacion) and you will go to the DGT (Traffic Management Service, an analogue of the Russian DIBDR), pay a small fee for the right to use Spanish roads (tasa) and fill out the application for obtaining state numbers (matrícula).

Now about the tax (impuesto de matriculación)

It is calculated according to a certain scheme developed by the tax authorities. The basis is the value of the brand of your car (there is a special catalog in which prices vary depending on the age of the vehicle, model and engine capacity), the real value of the car at the moment is calculated and divided by a certain coefficient. The result of these procedures is the tax figure that needs to be paid.

Example: for a 2012 BMW car with a capacity of 135/184/kw/l and a C02 content of less than 150 gr/, the following was charged:

  • The percentage of wear and tear of the machine is calculated as follows:
  • A car up to a year old – 100% (equivalent to a new one)
  • A car between 1 and 2 years old – 84% (that is, the price of a new car is reduced by 16%)
  • A car aged from 2 to 3 years – 67%, etc.

Next, from the received amount, we calculate the tax percentage itself, which depends on the CO2 emission indicators, in our case it is 4.45% of the car’s value.

And now let’s summarize and give a complete list of all future expenses:

  • Customs/Aduana/ -0 euro,
  • Tax (registration tax) – 900 euros,
  • Technical inspection (ITV) – 70 – 100 euros,
  • Obtaining a technical passport for the car (Ficha Tecnica) – 135 euros,
  • Application to the DGT for issuing new numbers (sollicitud) – 96 euros,
  • Production of new numbers – 35 euros.

Total  – 1266 euros.

It is also necessary to take into account that for this category of citizens “new residents” if the package of documents is correctly collected and submitted on time, there is a possibility of exemption from this tax (impuesto de matriculación).

We will not forget to point out that when submitting an application to the DGT for the issuance of Spanish license plates, payment of the transport tax for the current year will be required. The amount of this tax may vary depending on the province where the car is registered, its age, fuel type and will be from 70 euros per year and above.

Registration of the car and obtaining Spanish plates