Motor vehicles and driving in Spain

Brexit and Registering Vehicles From the UK in Spain

Countdown to Brexit

Every month hundreds of vehicles from the UK are registered in Spain. Holiday home owners and people moving to Spain, bring their car over, decide to keep it here, and register it on to Spanish number plates.

When the UK leaves the EU, many things currently taken for granted by Brits in Spain, will no longer be a given. Things like the right to reside, freedom of unhindered movement within the EU, and the right to bring possessions, like vehicles, with you when you move.

The recently agreed ‘Flextension’ has given more time for anyone planning to settle (or remain settled) in Spain, to get all their ducks in a row. The ‘flex’ clause however, does mean that the UK can leave ANY time between NOW and the new deadline of 31st October. This means things like getting your residency card, registering on the padron, exchanging driving licences and registering vehicles from the UK, still needs to be done with urgency.

How much does it cost to register a UK or other EU vehicle on to Spanish number plates? We get asked this question everyday, it’s constantly being asked on Facebook and forums, and whilst it’s not a straightforward one to answer, because there are many variables, here we provide an accurate as possible guide to the costs, along with simple explanations and some tips.

The cost to register a UK or other EU vehicle Spanish number plates

We break down the costs into what we call the T’s, and some may or may not apply depending on the car and or your situation.

When you take up residence in Spain, you are required to either register your your UK driving licence with the Spanish traffic authority, the DGT (Direccion General de Trafico), or exchange it for a Spanish licence.

The following link takes you to a guide provided by the DGT.

Canje de Permisos – Ingles

It is written in English, however, its not entirely clear, so we’ve summarised below the key points regarding the documents you’ll need and the process, based on our experience doing these.

Documents

Passport (and copy must be in date)
Photo x 2 (ESP carnet size)
Original UK licence
Medical certificate (not needed in all cases)
Residency certificate (and copy of front and back)
Padron (certificado de empadronamiento (dated within the last 3 months)
National Insurance Number

Forms

DGT application
DVLA authorization
Photo document (provided when you present your application at DGT)

Process

Gather all your docs and get your photos.

Find a recognised centre to take your medical. This is not mandatory, however without it your new Spanish licence will be valid only until the date you current UK photo card licence expires. With the medical you will be issued a 10 year Spanish photo card licence.

Note: If you have had your residency certificate for less than 1 year, your Spanish licence will be issued valid until either the 2 year anniversary of the date you got your residency, or the expiry date of your current photocard licence, whichever is sooner.

Book your appointment at the DGT on their website, or by calling 060.

Solictar Cita

Pay the fee. This can be done online. Remember to save / print off the receipt. (Justificante de pago).

Pago de Tasas

Attend your appointment and present your application. (Make sure when you sign the photo doc, that your signature is completely inside the box). You will be issued with a temporary licence (valid 3 months) until original comes through. This is can take anything from 4 – 12 weeks or more. With the increase in UK licence exchange applications due to Brexit, we recommend you be prepared that your licence may take more than 12 weeks to arrive

You can check the progress of your licence exchange here:

Servicio de Conductores

UK driving licence Exchange – Made Easy®

As in the UK, Spain has a system to identify and recognise Classic Cars. Under Spanish rules, cars that meet the various criteria, can achieve the status of being of ‘historical’ and registered as Classic Car with ‘historical’ licence plates. with the owner being able to enjoy the kudos of having their beloved motor officially recognised and adorned with ‘H’ plates.

Historical status for a Classic Car in Spain, also brings with the added perks of cheaper insurance, longer gaps between ITV´s and road tax exemption. The main identifying criteria is the age of the car, and in May 2018, that was raised, from 25 years to 30 years.

This change is not retrospective. Therefore, if your Classic Car is 27 years old and is already registered as ‘historical’, it won’t have lost its status.

Whilst in most cases age will be the determining factor for a vehicle to achieve ‘historical’ status, there are other ways a vehicle could make the grade, e.g. if it is listed in the Spanish Register of Heritage Cars, or if it is of cultural interest due to rarity or it’s association with a specific event.

In all cases when applying for ‘historical’ status for a Classic Car, each application is a world unto itself and it’s important that you know what you’re doing, or employ someone who does.

To find out more about Historical Status for your Classic Car in Spain, Get In Touch.You can call us on (+34) 951 77 55 44 / (+44) 033 0001 0777

We offer an expert service to register both domestic vehicles and foreign licensed Classic Cars brought to Spain as Historical vehicles.

Click here for more information about our service, or below to get an estimate of how much it will cost to get Historical Number Plates for your Classic Car.

Classic Car Historical Plates Enquiry

Registering Classic Cars in Spain

The process of assigning a licence number to a classic car in Spain is more or less the same as that for a normal car. However in most cases, the car will have to go through more vigorous checks before it can be passed. There is no differentiation in regard to age of vehicle and licence number issued. A 50 year old classic Ferrari, and a brand new Nissan Micra, could end up with consecutively numbered plates.

So unlike UK registrations which in general contain a year marker, it’s very difficult to gauge a Spanish registered car’s age from its licence plate.

From a classic car perspective, this means that, if you’re bringing your pride and joy 1964 Mercedes SL to Spain, when you register it, you will end up with a licence number that is just one digit different to hundreds of other regular new cars registered at the same time. Not great for prestige.

Much conflicting information circulates about how long you can keep and drive a UK registered car in Spain. Even the authorities themselves seem to be confused and give differing responses.

Referencing information from official publications, we aim to present a practical explanation to answer the question.

Contrary to popular belief that a UK registered car can only kept and legally be driven in Spain for 6 months, the actual length of time will ultimately be dictated by the following:

IVTM Impuesto sobre Vehículos de Tracción Mecánica is the Spanish equivalent of UK vehicle tax.

Almost all cars registered to drive on the road in Spain, are subject to this tax, and if you perhaps aren’t familiar with the system or who otherwise may not have got things set up correctly, you’ll find the following useful, at least to understand it, if not to flag problems, get them resolved and avoid future hassle and unnecessary costs.

If you own a Spanish registered vehicle, and by mid May haven’t received a bill for IVTM, or notification of payment, this could be an indication of a problem relating to details held by the DGT (Direccion General de Trafico) about the registered owner of the vehicle.

The following are some of the things we hear and questions we get asked about IVTM.

Common Scenarios

No one told me I had to pay this!

You’ll be surprised how often we hear this.Yes, quite a few people aren’t actually aware that there is this tax to pay.

Anyone in this situation should get their vehicle status checked asap. There’ll probably be backdated tax to pay and quite likely other irregularities with the vehicle paperwork.

I've had my car for years and never had a tax bill

Was the change of ownership completed? Maybe the car is still registered to the previous owner, or your address isn’t correct at the DGT.

As with the previous, you should check your vehicles status and paperwork. There’ll be back dated tax owed, and you’ll need to sort out whatever the issue is, so that in future your bill comes to you.

It's supposed to go out by direct debit but it hasn't

The most common cause of this is there not being sufficient funds in the account to pay it.

The payment should be indicated as ‘IVTM’ with the ‘matricula’ (number plate) as reference, you can check at the local tax office in case there is a problem their end. If it hasn’t been paid they can issue you with a new bill which you can pay at any collaborating bank.

I received the bill but missed the date by which I had to pay it

IVTM bills are issued with a limited period during which you can pay them at collaborating banks. If you miss the payment window, the bank will not be able to take the payment, so you will need to go to the local Town Hall tax office to get the bill re-issued, then go back to the bank and pay it. A prime example of seemingly needless Spanish bureaucracy!

I keep getting a tax bill for a car I've sold!

The transfer out of your name hasn’t been completed correctly.

If you used a ‘Gestoria’ or sold the car to a dealer and they handled the transfer of ownership, go back to them.

If you have details of the person who you sold the car to, i.e. NIE / NIF copy or passport, and sales contract, (‘compra-venta’), you can notify the DGT of the change of ownership.

When you sell a vehicle in Spain, you should never leave it to the buyer to handle the change of ownership. For as long as the vehicle is still registered in your name, you will be liable not just for tax, but also fines, speeding and parking tickets etc.

FAQ’s

I've changed address, what do I need to do?

You need to inform the DGT of a change of address so you get the tax notification to your new address.

How do I know when I have to pay?

The tax is generally paid yearly, though some town halls bill in two periods.

The bills are generally issued from April to June to the address the vehicle is registered at DGT. The bill details the vehicle to which it relates, and the amount due. If you pay by direct debit you will get a payment notification.

If you have not received either bill or payment notification by mid May, there could be a problem, e.g. address, or bank details incorrect, so it will be worthwhile checking with your local tax office, just in case.

How or where do I pay it?

You can pay the bill at collaborating banks or by direct debit from your bank account. Some town halls offer online payment options, (though these often don’t work) and some banks also have online payment facilities for their customers. A few town halls also accept payments directly.

Do I still need to pay it if I don’t use the vehicle?

If your vehicle isn’t being used, you have the option to notify the DGT that it is off the road, ‘baja temporal’, the equivalent of UK SORN. You can then notify the DGT when you start using the car again.

Note: Make sure you don’t give permanent notice by mistake, ‘baja definitiva’. This is used when cars are scrapped!

What happens if I don’t pay it?

The debt stays with the registered owner of the vehicle which if left unpaid could ultimately result in an embargo on the vehicle or your bank account.
This is one reason why it’s important to make sure the transfer of ownership is done correctly when you sell a vehicle.

Can I sell my car if it has unpaid taxes?

A vehicle change of ownership cannot be processed at DGT unless all taxes are up to date, so any unpaid taxes would need to be taken into account in your negotiations with the buyer when agreeing the sale price.

Do I need to keep proof of payment of the tax in the car?

No this isn’t a requirement. DGT systems hold records of tax payments.

If I buy a car part way through the year what happens with the tax?

The billing period runs from the 1^st Jan to the 31^st of December. The person responsible for the taxes is the registered owner on the 1^st Jan.

In Spain tax is not refunded on a pro-rata basis as it is in the UK when a car is sold. Normally during the vehicle sale negotiations, agreement is reached between the two parties as to who will pay, i.e. whether the amount is taken into account in the sale price or not.

If you need a hand with your IVTM, come in and see us, or give us a call on (+34) 951 77 55 44 / (+44) 033 0001 0777, and we’ll be more than happy to answer any further questions you may have, and offer you some free guidance and advice.

We get asked lots of questions about bringing UK registered cars to Spain, and whenever we write, share articles or info, the comments and replies that we get, reveal a lot of confusion. Mis-information abounds regarding driving UK registered cars in Spain, keeping them here, and switching them to Spanish number plates.

So we’ve compiled a list of the most prevalent myths and FAQ’s, and answered them with facts and other useful info.

Driving UK registered cars in Spain

Myth-Fact-Right-Wrong? Click on the tabs to find out.

Police in Spain are becoming much more proactive in taking action and removing UK registered cars that don’t have MOT or tax paid, from public roads. By law they are perfectly justified in doing this, though it seems there are examples where their assertiveness has been spilling over into over zealousness and they have been removing completely road legal cars from the road as well.

Based on the cases we’ve seen, it appears that where the online vehicle check, for example on an MOT returns ‘no details held’, the Police are assuming “guilty until proven innocent”. The DVLA register of course doesn’t hold MOT details for most cars under 3 years as an MOT isn’t required, so unfortunate drivers of relatively new UK registered cars are being grossly inconvenienced.

What to do if you UK registered car is taken by Police in Spain?

In all cases you will have to pay the pick up truck charge plus a storage for each day your car has been held.

If your car wasn’t parked correctly or somewhere it shouldn’t have been, there will be a fine and a pick up charge. You will be asked to produce your driving licence to retrieve the vehicle.

There could also be a fine if the police deem your vehicle to have not been legally insured at the time they picked it up.

If your vehicle is legitimate, i.e. has MOT and Tax – you will probably be asked to provide proof that your car has both MOT and Tax or is exempt. You will also be asked to produce proof of where you are staying.

If you live in Spain or have a Spanish licence or Residencia, things can get complicated. Policia Local are logging vehicle registrations and then picking up any that they subsequently come across 6 months later. The assumption they are making, is that if the car has been in Spain 6 months or more, so must its owner be, therefore they must be resident. So they expect the car to be put onto Spanish number plates. These cases are more complicated and requirements will vary depending on individual situation.

If your vehicle has MOT but no Tax – you will need to tax the vehicle and if the police are satisfied that there is no question about whether you live in Spain and your other documentation provided they will release your vehicle.

If it has no MOT – regardless of whether it is taxed or not, you will be asked to put your vehicle onto Spanish number plates. To get it released, you will need temporary green P (Provisional) plates. For these you will need to pay the relevant registration tax, amend your existing insurance or take out a new policy. These provisional plates give you 60 days to get your vehicle registered onto Spanish number plates.

If you need help to get your car back, we can get most UK vehicles released to their owners in hours, and when it comes to getting Spanish number plates for UK cars, we are experts.

Car Rescue Hotlines

(+34) 951 255 877 or (+44) 033 0001 0777

Fill in your vehicle details below to check tax and MOT status online.

Note – In addition to the tax and MOT information above, the authorities in Spain can access the details of the registered keeper of the vehicle.

Motor vehicles and driving in Spain

Brexit and Registering Vehicles From the UK in Spain

Countdown to Brexit

The cost to register a UK or EU vehicle on to Spanish number plates

The cost to register a UK or other EU vehicle Spanish number plates