Brought your car over from home? How long you have to put it on Spanish plates

Two situations, two answers

If you are not resident and bring your car from mainland Spain, the Balearics or another EU country for a season, the Spanish tax agency is clear: the vehicle may stay in the Canary Islands for a maximum of six consecutive months, for private use only, not lent, hired out or handed to anyone else, and with no customs formality at all. If it is going to stay longer than six months, you must declare it to customs beforehand or apply for temporary admission. If, on the other hand, you are resident in Spain and the car is staying with you, it has to be registered here. And for that there is a deadline hardly anyone knows about.

The deadline: 30 days, or 60 if you move here and qualify for the exemption

The rule sits in the registration tax, the Impuesto de matriculación. The tax agency treats the tax as arising when a resident uses a foreign-plated vehicle in Spain and has not applied for definitive Spanish registration within thirty days. If you are moving your habitual residence to Spain and meet the conditions of the removal exemption (see below), the period is sixty days. If you do not, it stays at thirty. Watch the start date: for the tax office it is the day the car enters Spain. Keep your ferry ticket. Only if that cannot be proved does it count from the date you became resident. Once the period has passed, the tax counts as due even if you have filed nothing, and from then on everything gets more complicated.

The registration tax may not apply

If you move to Spain with your car, you can be exempt from the registration tax provided you meet five conditions the tax agency lists: you had your habitual residence outside Spain for at least the twelve months before the move; you used the car at your old home for at least six months before leaving; you bought it there under normal tax conditions, with no tax refunded on the way out; you apply for registration within the deadline; and you do not sell or transfer it for twelve months after registration. No prior approval is needed, but the exemption declaration (modelo 06) must be filed within the same thirty- or sixty-day period, otherwise the exemption is lost. When the tax is payable, the amount depends on the car's CO2 emissions, and the Canary Islands apply their own rates. We give no figures here; your gestor works it out from your ficha técnica.

In the Canaries there is one more step: customs

The Canary Islands sit outside the EU VAT area. Bringing a car in from Germany, Ireland or mainland Spain therefore counts as an import and attracts IGIC, the local sales tax, even if the car is second-hand and already taxed at home. There is an exemption here too for a transfer of residence, with its own conditions: at least 185 days a year lived outside the Canaries if you come from mainland Spain, the Balearics or the EU, or twelve months if you come from outside the EU; six months of owning and using the car; the car arriving within twelve months of your change of residence; registering on the padrón within six months of the car's arrival if you have not already; and not selling, lending or hiring it out for twelve months. The declaration goes through the customs one-stop window, VEXCAN. This is the step people forget most often, because it does not exist on the mainland. One more thing: a UK-registered car now counts as coming from outside the EU, so customs comes first and the rules differ.

The steps, in order

According to the DGT, the route is this. First the ITV, the technical inspection: bring the original foreign registration document, the EU certificate of conformity (CoC) or a ficha reducida (for cars from before 2002, an individual homologation document), and the sales contract or invoice if the car is not in your name; the test centre issues the Spanish ficha técnica. Second, the taxes: registration tax or exemption with the tax agency, road tax at your town hall and, in the Canaries, import IGIC. Third, the registration application at Tráfico, in person or online. Fourth, the plates, from an authorised shop. If you can see the thirty or sixty days will not be enough, there is a temporary registration with green plates: it is valid for sixty days and is applied for together with the definitive registration; it is only extended if the delay is not your fault and you apply before it expires. To drive on it, the car must be insured and have a valid ITV.

And the insurance, which is our part

Your policy at home is tied to your home plates and often to your home address too. Before you deregister the car there, send us a WhatsApp on 636 47 02 07: we will tell you which papers we need for the new policy and go through the changeover with you. Without insurance the car may not be driven for a single day, green plates included. One more reason for Spanish plates: in natural disasters such as a volcanic eruption, the Consorcio only covers vehicles with Spanish registration. Bring your no-claims certificate from your current insurer as well; how it works here is in our article on the no-claims bonus. And if your driving licence is from another EU country, read our article on exchanging it: it is not compulsory, but if your licence has no expiry date there is a deadline.