Paying Car Tax In Spain

Why does everything in Spain have to be so difficult?  All I want to do is pay my car tax, what could be simpler?  But no, because my Residencia address is still La Linea, and I haven't changed it since moving further up the coast, I have to pay my car tax in La Linea.  Fine, but I have now tried a total of 4 times to pay it without success.  I went to the office the first time in mid May, plenty of time I thought as the tax doesn't run out until 30th June.  On arriving at the tax office, after a 20 mile drive, at 13:40 I am met with a sign on the door that states that the office closes at 13:30.  Okay, my mistake, so I'll come back another day.  A week later I went back at about 12:15 and was confronted by a crowd of about 50 people in front of me, some had taken a ticket for next in line and some hadn't and it was mayhem.  Okay I'll come back another day.  On 1st June I arrived about 12:15 again and was delighted to see that the waiting area was empty so I knocked on the office door and went in.  Inside were 3 people at desks, one was on the phone, another was doing nothing and another was taking care of the car tax for a lady.  So I stood there with my car documents in my hand, and I stood, and I stood, and I stood.  Eventually the woman dealing with the car tax form said something to me in Spanish and I asked her if she could speak English, she said "What do you want?", I said I'd like to pay my car tax please.  She said "We're finished, we close at 12 noon, Summer hours".  I didn't swear I just walked out thinking swear words.  I went back yesterday at 10am to find another crowd in the waiting room and a security guard preventing people entering the office door before their turn, again some had next in line tickets some hadn't.  I took a ticket ,No.58, I asked the guard what number were they dealing with and his reply was in Spanish but even I know the Spanish for No.6!!!!!!!!!!!!  My ticket went in the bin.  For Gods sake all I want to do is to pay my car tax, I don't have time to spend my life standing in disorderly queues.  Surely there must be an easier way, especially as I've now been told that if I don't pay before the 30th I will be fined?  Any ideas anyone?

I felt the same when I went to renew my contract with Endesa, they use the same system of numbered tickets,all I wanted to do was pay them, money in the bank for them, I thought what could be easier, take my money and switch on my electric, but no, trip to the bank to get a copy on my Escritura, back to the electric office next day, paid up and told we would be on in 3-5 days and they would call to let us know when the engineer would come to swtch it on..no call from them in the 5 days....several calls from us followed and 3 days later we where on.

My advice go real early, get your ticket, and stand in line until it is your turn. It's just the way it is.

I told the story to my Spanish neighbour and his reply was ''Sorry this is Spain''

I have just taxed my car it should have been done in April but we were not in spain so could not do it , so yes you do get interrest but its not much for my  ford fiesta it cost me 4 euros more for being 2 months late . On the queing side could you find out what time they open and maybe try getting there 30 mins before they open it may be worth a try.

All I can it's infuriating!

I was forced to spend 3 hours in Endesa last week helping someone who had been disconnected.

It's impossible to do even the most basic of tasks in Spain without attending in person and bringing a brief case of documentation to prove who you are.

The Spanish do not embrace technology and do not believe in efficiency and as for being green not judging by the amount of photocopies they request!

All this queueing and paper shuffling keeps them all in a job.

In the UK you would never go to the Town Hall, tax office, electricity (I think all the high shops closed!), gas, water .... and so on....

What do we do? we either do it online or pick up the phone and ok we probably speak to someone in India. In the UK everything has been outsourced to create lower transaction costs. So please don't complain about the nice polite person in Mumbai who does his/her best to help you whilst we sit at our desk.

Also in the UK we have no gestorias just user friendly forms and also mostly available in multi-language.

Of course the other big difference is in the UK you have choice and you can contract electricity/utilities with whoever you want.

Same old story Faro, you just have to embrace it even though it can be infuriating. Can't quite agree on the phone calls to India, there are simply times, helpful as they might be, and try as I might, I just cannot understand them and it can be just as frustrating as some of the things we put up with in Spain.

On a better note I also had to get my water back on. I went into the local water office around 10am, paid the bill, was told it would be back on late afternoon and at around 11.30 am it was on!!

Is it not possible for you to pay at a bank  I paid mine in Orihuela that way no problem

I'd be very surprised if you can't pay it at a bank, as fpegman says, although the bank will have certain hours of certain days when you can pay. They are deliberately awkward because they want you to pay by direct debit - to save them cost and of course effort. So I do sympathise and agree with most of the comments here, but sometimes you do have to be a bit flexible and accept that you cannot always do things the way you want to.

Faro: "Of course the other big difference is in the UK you have choice and you can contract electricity/utilities with whoever you want". Ditto Spain now, although whether it would be wise to or not is another debate for another thread.

You do pay the tax at a bank but you can't pay it without the form they give you at the Motor Tax Office and, as I found out last year,  you can only pay the tax at the banks on certain days.  Last year I queued in a bank in La Linea only to be told to come back on either a Tuesday or a Thursday as those were the only days the banks would deal with it, I also tried 2 or 3 other banks in La Linea only to be told the same thing!!!!  One bank actually told me that I couldn't pay the tax there at all.  I went up the coast to Sabinillas and walked in to Barclays bank and paid it there and then without a problem.  Explain that one please !

Like I said, the banks make up their own rules to make it difficult for you to walk in and create work for the clerks. There's no reasonable explanation, other than the catch-all "This is Spain". Having said that, I'm no big fan of UK banks either. Perhaps it would be better to just say "This is 2010"?

Having just scrolled back to read your original post, whilst I do (honestly) sympathise with youir frustration (been there done that and got a warehouse full of T-shirts), you do admit that you never bothered to notify anyone of your change of address. If your car was registered at your actual address rather than a previous one, you should receive your annual tax request by post. You could alternatively take your previous tax bill in to your bank and tell them you want to pay future bills by direct debit, and they should then automatically come out of your account - the bank should set it up for you.

Quite right Roberto, I didn't notify my change of address because I was told that I would have to go through more, or less, the same process as when I originally applied for my Residencia which took about 7 months and endless queues at the National Policia station.  My Residencia needs to be renewed in October 2011 so I'll just have to accept it until then.  I did take last year's car tax form in to the bank and they said I couldn't pay it without this years form.  As for paying it by Direct Debit; no way, I've had enough of every Tom, Dick and Harry in Spain helping themselves to my money in my account.  As for "this is Spain", I understand that and I'm not looking to change anyone's ways, or lifestyle, but surely progress must mean amending antiquated work practices that affect the Spanish themselves, not just us from other countries (that are also far from perfect, which is why I'm here in the first place).

I sympathise with you but I had the exact opposite experience yesterday when renewing my car tax.

I bought the car 9 months ago so did not get the normal annual renewal for this year. I went off to the local Town Hall yesterday to get my current year invoice to take to the bank. I had the dogs in the car so was conscious of time. Having parked the car under a tree for shade at 11.15am I walked the short distance to the office at Pulpí. There was no-one else in, so I was seen immediately. Within 5 minutes I had my renewal notice which I took straight across the road to one of the listed banks. Only 1 person ahead of me in the bank, so payment made, document stamped and back to the car all within 15 minutes.

I know this is Spain but on occasions it can also be incredibly straight forward.

Wow, can't believe the trouble you've had, my experience is completely different.  Lots of my neighbours have asked me to help them with getting their bills etc from Murcia council, I simply email them or call and they email over the bills instantly.  People then pay them at the bank!

Perhaps Murcia is more in tune with technology.

Have you checked your bill, does it not list the banks at which you can make a payment at?  Perhaps it's different to Murcia.

Good luck anyway.

 Totally agree with you about paying anything by direct debit - I have had the same experience, guard my bank details with my life and pay everything in cash when possible, including my car tax, so I really do sympathise. I hope you manage to get it sorted soon.

I'm not entirely sure, however, why your residencia has any relevancy? Do you have to change that in order to change the address that the council has for your car registration? I never changed the address on my residency card until it was due for renewal (you won't get a new one, by the way, it's been replaced by a useless piece of paper with no photo which means it's no good as ID which means you will need your passport for most things, which naturally does not have your Spanish address on it anyway) but that didn't affect anything else, such as the address I am registered at with the town hall (empadronamiento). In fact, I'm pretty sure I never notified the car tax office (which here at least is the same as the rates office) of my last change of address - I think it happened automatically when I gave the padrón office my new address. Computers, apparently, doing their job efficiently.

The address on your residencia seems to be the all important factor as where I live comes under the Malaga jurisdiction but La Linea comes under Cadiz.  In the Malaga area the residencia is now for life and, as you say, it's just an A4 piece of paper with no picture but I'm told there is a way of getting it in the credit card type format.  I've seen one but I'm not sure where you get it done.

I think you will find it is irrespective of where you live. It's an EU mandate.

If you are a non-EU citizen, you still get a photo card.