Taking your car to Spain: importing, matriculación and what it costs

Q: How much is the registration tax, and why don't you pay it?

The impuesto especial sobre determinados medios de transporte , the official name of the registration tax, is calculated on the value of your car. The rate rises with CO2 emissions: 0% up to 120 g/km, 4.75% up to 160 g/km, 9.75% up to 200 g/km and 14.75% above that . Autonomous regions may raise those rates by up to 15% (Catalonia and Valencia: 16%); in the Canary Islands they are one point lower, in Ceuta and Melilla nil. On a € 20,000 car emitting more than 160 g/km you are therefore looking at almost € 2,000. That is precisely the item a genuine mover doesn't pay. Whoever moves their normal residence to Spain is exempt. Four conditions apply: You lived outside Spain for the twelve months before the move. You used the car there yourself for at least six months . You bought it there under normal taxation, without a refund on leaving. You don't sell it in the first year after registration . You claim the exemption with modelo 06 . You do that in person at the counter, because supporting documents must go with it, or through a gestor who may file it digitally.

Q: Bring it or sell it?

Do the whole sum before you load the car. Inspection, registration tax, fees, any modifications and the gestor — add it up, subtract the bpm refund, and put it next to what your car would still fetch in the Netherlands. For an older car, selling in the Netherlands and buying something else in Spain is regularly cheaper on balance. If you choose to sell and buy there, know that the purchase requires your NIE and in practice your empadronamiento too. So plan the first weeks on a rental car. You may keep using your Dutch driving licence meanwhile, with its own rules once you are registered . If you bring the car, start the conversion right after settling. The deadline is too short to keep it for "once the boxes are unpacked". In Vertrekklaar this conversion is a step of its own in the journey, with the clocks of thirty days, sixty days and thirteen weeks watched and the forms attached. See the whole journey to Spain .

You drive into Spain without any formalities — but as soon as you live there, the car has to go onto Spanish plates, and that clock runs in days. What importing actually involves, why the registration tax comes to nothing for a genuine mover, what is left to pay, and when selling is the smarter route.

5 min read

Written and checked by Auke on 26 September 2026, against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

Once you live in Spain, you have thirty days to put your car on Spanish plates. As a resident you may not drive on foreign plates.

Driving into Spain does go without any formalities: free movement, no customs, no form. The real work starts afterwards. Registration comes with a registration tax, the tax on a car's first registration in Spain. For a genuine mover it comes to nothing, if you claim the exemption in time.

When does the car need Spanish plates?

Within the EU your car should be registered in the country where you have your main residence. As soon as Spain becomes your country of residence, the car has to be converted and you pay the car taxes there. Your empadronamiento, the registration with your town hall, shows that Spain is where you live. If the procedure is still running while the thirty days tick away, you can get temporary plates from the DGT until it's completed.

What exactly is the matriculación?

From the Netherlands there are no customs and no import duty. What people call importing is in Spain one procedure: matriculación, the first registration with the traffic authority DGT. It goes in this order:

Your car's papers, with the European certificate of conformity (COC) from the manufacturer. If it's missing, you have a ficha reducida (a shortened technical sheet) drawn up by an engineer. The DGT itself calls that the faster and cheaper alternative.
The ITV inspection, the Spanish MOT. The inspection station converts your car to the Spanish ficha técnica, the vehicle's technical sheet.
The taxes. You need proof of payment or exemption of the registration tax (modelo 576, 06 or 05). And proof that you have paid the annual road tax IVTM at your municipality: the DGT asks for it before it assigns the plates.
The application itself, with fee 1.1 of € 99.77.

A gestor, an administrative agent, pays for itself here at the first wrong form.

How much is the registration tax, and why don't you pay it?

The impuesto especial sobre determinados medios de transporte, the official name of the registration tax, is calculated on the value of your car. The rate rises with CO2 emissions: 0% up to 120 g/km, 4.75% up to 160 g/km, 9.75% up to 200 g/km and 14.75% above that. Autonomous regions may raise those rates by up to 15% (Catalonia and Valencia: 16%); in the Canary Islands they are one point lower, in Ceuta and Melilla nil. On a € 20,000 car emitting more than 160 g/km you are therefore looking at almost € 2,000.

That is precisely the item a genuine mover doesn't pay. Whoever moves their normal residence to Spain is exempt. Four conditions apply:

You lived outside Spain for the twelve months before the move.
You used the car there yourself for at least six months.
You bought it there under normal taxation, without a refund on leaving.
You don't sell it in the first year after registration.

You claim the exemption with modelo 06. You do that in person at the counter, because supporting documents must go with it, or through a gestor who may file it digitally.

Which clocks are running?

Clock	Deadline	When it starts
Registering the car in Spain	30 days	the moment you use the car in Spain as a resident
Filing the registration tax (576 or 06)	30 days, 60 days with the exemption for moving residence	first use of the car in Spain
Not selling the car, or the exemption lapses	12 months	registration in Spain
Dutch bpm refund: the car must be registered elsewhere	13 weeks	the day the RDW records the 'Export' status
DGT registration fee (fee 1.1)	€ 99.77	at the application
Registration tax without exemption	0 to 14.75% (up to 16% per region)	on the value of the car

Sixty days is not the year everyone repeats. That "year" is about the tourist temporarily in Spain. Register as a resident and you get days, not months — and whoever misses the deadline loses the exemption and pays the registration tax after all.

What does the Netherlands give back?

Export your car and you get part of the bpm once paid back, the Dutch tax on passenger cars. The conditions are hard:

the car got Dutch plates on or after 16 October 2006;
it is not a write-off;
it gets the 'Export' status at the RDW;
it is durably registered in the other country within thirteen weeks of that status.

Whoever dawdles in Spain therefore loses money in the Netherlands.

What remains on balance, the cost estimate for Spain counts as roughly € 190 to € 1,100, assuming the exemption. That covers the registration fee, ITV, plates, IVTM, possibly a gestor and a ficha reducida.

Bring it or sell it?

Do the whole sum before you load the car. Inspection, registration tax, fees, any modifications and the gestor — add it up, subtract the bpm refund, and put it next to what your car would still fetch in the Netherlands. For an older car, selling in the Netherlands and buying something else in Spain is regularly cheaper on balance.

If you choose to sell and buy there, know that the purchase requires your NIE and in practice your empadronamiento too. So plan the first weeks on a rental car. You may keep using your Dutch driving licence meanwhile, with its own rules once you are registered.

If you bring the car, start the conversion right after settling. The deadline is too short to keep it for "once the boxes are unpacked".

In Vertrekklaar this conversion is a step of its own in the journey, with the clocks of thirty days, sixty days and thirteen weeks watched and the forms attached. See the whole journey to Spain.

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

Your Europe — registering your car in your new country of residence — europa.eu
Agencia Tributaria — driving on foreign plates when you live in Spain (thirty days) — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
DGT — putting an EU vehicle onto Spanish plates (ITV, ficha técnica, municipal road tax) — dgt.es
Sede DGT — ordinary registration: fee 1.1 of € 99.77 and the documents required — sede.dgt.gob.es
Agencia Tributaria — when you are exempt at first registration (traslado de residencia) — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Agencia Tributaria — the deadline for filing (thirty days, sixty when you move residence) — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Agencia Tributaria — the registration tax rates per CO2 band — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Agencia Tributaria — modelo 06, the form with which you claim the exemption — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
BOE — Ley 38/1992, article 70, the CO2 bands of the registration tax — boe.es
Dutch Tax Administration — bpm refund when you export a used vehicle (thirteen weeks) — belastingdienst.nl

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