Selling your Car in Spain

The proceedure of selling your car in Spain is not as simple as you might - find out how to avoid the pitfalls.

 

When you decide to sell your car in Spain , and you have found a buyer, you first need to obtain and complete a transfer of ownership form (Notificación de Transferencia de Vehículos, usually simply called a transferencia) - available from your Provincial Traffic Department. This needs to be done in duplicate as one copy is given to the buyer and the other sent to the traffic department. (Always best to keep a photocopy for your own records aswell)

Upon completion of the sale you are required to pay a transfer tax (Impuesto sobre transmisiones patrimoniales y actos jurídicos documentados/ ITP), which is currently 4% of the value of the car. This value is decided by the tax office, which publishes a list of values for all new cars sold in Spain. This is reduced each year (e.g. by 12 per cent when a vehicle is between one and two years old) until it’s ten or more years old, when the fiscal value is 10 per cent of the new value. It’s the responsibility of the seller to pay the tax, and most sellers include this tax in the sales price (so check in advance what it is, and factor this in to your selling price if needs be !)

The tax must be declared on form 620 (Compra-Venta de vehículos usados entre particulares), which you can pick up from a tobacconist ( estanco) or tax office ( hacienda), and paid within 30 days of selling your car. Payment is made at the provincial tax office (Consejería de Hacienda) of the regional government. You can use a gestor or other specialist company to the paperwork for you.

• Complete, sign and date the reverse of the registration document (Permiso de circulación) under the section transferido and take it directly to the provincial traffic department along with your other car papers, such as the ITV test certificate, municipal tax receipt and a form from your local town hall on which you’ve de-registered your ownership (for municipal tax reasons)

• Inform your insurance company that the vehicle has been sold - stop the policy and arrange a rebate.

• If you’re selling your car privately, insist on payment in cash or with a banker’s draft ( cheque bancario), which is standard practice in Spain. If you cannot tell a banker’s draft from a personal cheque, insist on cash.It is not recommended to accept a personal cheque

• Include in the receipt the price paid, the car’s kilometre reading and a statement that you’re selling the car in its present condition ( Bought as seen ) without a guarantee ( sin garantía), and get the buyer to sign this.

Although it’s the buyer’s responsibility to re-register the vehicle in his name within 30 days of purchase, many fail to do this (to avoid paying a change of registration fee of €42.60), so unless the buyer accompanies you to the tax or government office, it’s in your interest to pay this fee (you must present a bill of sale signed by the buyer). If the buyer then fails to re-register the vehicle, you won’t receive any fines for parking and motoring offences committed by him, which you would otherwise.

You should also be aware that thieves can sometimes pose as buyers. Never allow a prospective buyer to drive your car alone or even to sit in the driving seat when you aren’t in the car (unless you retain the ignition keys). There have been a number of incidents where theives drive off with cars after duping the owner into getting out.