Road Tax in Spain
If you own a vehicle in Spain such as a car or motorbike then you must obtain compulsory road tax, this is known is Spain as SUMA.
Failure to do so can result in your vehicle being impounded by the different types of police in Spain. The road tax varies from region to region as it is set by each municipal authority.
Road tax (or SUMA) in Spain is much lower than other countries such as the United Kingdom. Insurance-Spain.com is based in Javea on the Costa Blanca (Valencia region of Spain) and we pay €92 a year for our four-year-old Citroen Picasso.
You can pay your road tax at your local town hall office (known in Spain as Ayuntamiento) or you can get a bank direct debit up so you don’t have to think about it each year. The only problem that could happen here is that if you sell your car you could end up paying the road tax until the debit is cancelled, it might be a hassle that’s all.
Payment is due approximately at the end of each April. Even if you don’t meet this date then the fine (when you do pay) is very small – we were once three months late and I think paid an extra 10 euros.
You are normally send a notice as a reminder but even if you don’t receive this then just go into your town hall and they will have your vehicle details anyway and will tell you how much to pay (they give you a slip which you take to a local bank to pay).
The only way of not paying the road tax in Spain is if your vehicle if off the road for the whole year – in this case you can get an exemption which is known as a baja temporal. If you re-register your UK registered car onto Spanish license plates then the car will automatically be logged by the local municipality when you or your gestor registers your ownership with the provincial traffic department. You will then need to pay the road tax due for the rest of the fiscal year.
This page on Car Insurance Spain is one of many helpful and useful articles on car insurance in Spain – for a full list see our section on Car Insurance Spain
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