Car Importation Tax

A year ago I imported my UK car to Spain. It's a Ford Cougar and about 12 years old but good condition and low milage so we thought it worth the trouble.  We duly paid the importation taxes and associated fees. Now, a year later and out of the blue, the Tax people say I haven't paid enough tax as they have looked up the car and say it is worth €20,000!!!

Has anybody else any experience of this?

Ha Ha, very funny! Don't you just love the Spanish sense of humour.

It's probably a similar scam that is used to get more tax out of an unsuspecting buying of a resale property. The tax authorities still use the old valuations of 2008 or so, thereby demanding more tax should have been paid.

Have any of you seen the prices asked for used cars in Spain? I was absolutely gob smacked at the prices asked, me being me I decided to find out what was going on. Apparently Spanish car finance deals are for far longer than in the UK,  so with say a 10 years finance deal the trade in value of the car is the amount still owed,if the car hasn't been cared for the owner must front up the difference.

I can't answer the Couger question but know that my 9 years old BMW X3 2.0 tdi would be worth far more in Spain than in the UK. I suppose that as with their Model 20 taxation system, Spain being a skint member, is attacking anything and everything that they can squeeze revenue out of. It might be worth comparing the price of an identical car with say, Parkers/Autotrader against their Spanish equivalent, I wager that the latter will be higher than the former. 

While I was in Spain a couple of weeks back a friends friend who has no husband asked me to come and look over a car she was going to buy, firstly I asked her "If I tell you the car is no good will you buy it?"..NOPE, so we go to this dealers premises, an open site next to the dealers Villa, she owned both, the car was a 2003  Ford Fusion Diesel 5 door, front bumper damaged and broken, rear bumper damaged and loose, interior mirror broken of, top glove box broken of, bodywork damage to the drivers side rear, the owner promised to do all this work before sold. Accident damage to the passenger rear that had been repaired in the past very badly due to the door gaps and rear quarter panel being closed, centre door pillar slightly damaged,  and paint overspray everywhere reaching to the front door, supposedly full service history, which she the dealer didn't have, I found it, one stamp, 99,000km's, one key, 4 good tyres and drove good.

I told the friend that in the UK I would be ashamed to sell this, or even offer for sale this car as it was, and I wouldn't have even bought it with the accident damage, told her not to buy it, she did as it was the cheapest she could find,  UK top condition I sell this year for £1,995 to £2,395....This Spanish one was 4,000€

Used cars in Spain are expensive and this can only be down to market demand if it was greed and stupidity then the market demand would dictate and many used car sellers would go out of business

Add to that the problem that many used car dealers are crooks (fiddle mileage, age etc) my advice is go for new every time (obviously funds can be a limiter).

When we were looking to renew our car we looked around at used cars and wanted low mileage 2 or 3 yrs old. None of the dealers wanted to negotiate and the prices were high. We ended up buying a brand new one got a good price (comparable with UK prices it not slighlty less) and a good px and overall cost was very close to the best we could get on a similar used car. We did have difficuklty trying to negotiate sensibly with dealers in Torrevieja so we ended up at a dealer in Elche

So shop around it does work

I think you'll find it's that used cars in UK are cheap rather than Spain is expensive. We have bought used cars in Cyprus,  France,  Italy and Spain and they are all far more expensive than UK,  Cyprus being the highest while the other 3 roughly the same.  It's just that we are used to used cars in UK being cheap.

On the plus side, you don't lose so much when you sell it.  We bought a used, 3 year old Ford for €7100 and got €7000 when we sold it 18 months later.

However, import duty in Spain is (to my mind) a scam. Free market and all that but I think Spain has several EU rulings against them but continue to do so anyway.

You're not wrong there, the PIGS economies get away with blue murder, irrespective of them being broke and as bent as a bottle of crisps. The sooner that the UK exits the EU the better, a £1.7 billion bill to prop up the inadequacies of countries like Spain is nothing short of daylight robbery, I do note that the Dutch feel the same, perhaps the collapse of the EU has started. 

Fair comment crookesey and slightly off thread but as you mention it

but I wonder how the UK would act if roles were reversed and say an affluent Spanish, Greek, German or any other EU economy did the same?

All EU countries signed up to this and what is wrong with helping others when they are in trouble we will glaldy spend billions invading non EU countries but will not help our own. A selfish UK and we are brainwashed into the current mindest by the media and the right wing selfish tories and we all know where it started back in '79!!!

Even hyporcritical UKIP  - a 4 country union but not a 28 country union give me a break are the British people that stupid (the Scots aren't)

UK out of EU then the UK economy will collapse - how many big companies in UK are owned by EU countreris (and other countries for access to EU market) will leave the UK all we will be left with is a (corrupt) banking / finance sector in London which will also decline as the economy declines as they try to protect their own self interests

As with the recent Scottish vote " we are better together supporting each other" - diffenert hypocritical view now by UK!!!!!

I would rather be governed by an elected EU parlaiment than the pack of whingers and selfish incompetents we have in Parliament

There is nothing to be proud of in UK or of being English and nothing great in Great Britain we are not that special and never have been get over it

We are all human and have the same basic needs and we need to help as many as we can by no matter what means and who makes the biggest profit

Soory but rant over

Charles de Gaulle never wanted us in on an 'allow the UK in and end up with the USA' basis. Allowing Turkey in (is this Eurovision Song Contest rules by the way? If so it's Israel next) will rubber stamp UK entry for any Islamic terrorist.

Back to Car Importation Tax, is the legal or not? I watch a TV programme called Wheeler Dealers, where many cars have been imported from the likes of France and Germany, where no importation costs other than ferry charges applied. I don't know if any of you guys read this, but apparently it's quite acceptable for any member state to ignore Brussels European Court of Justice edicts,I wonder if it's worth ignoring the £1.7 billion demand.  

Yes, it is worth ignoring this stupid for doing well over priced amount but honestly can you see cameron doing so, because I cant, one way or the other he and all his other cronies will find many reasons why it cant be done, forget all the "I wont pay" show of strength on TV, he cant say anything else. It takes someone with balls to stand up and say "NO WAY" and really mean it, and then if we did get fined and don't pay the fine, what will they do, send in the bailiffs? I am sure we could find plenty of crap they could re-posse.

I do get the impression that many other countries don't want all these rules and the many tax's but are all scared s**tless to do anything, just waiting for the first country to stand up and fight back so they can then join in, so be it if it's the UK 

I only hope I am wrong on this and we don't pay it.

The only reason's I can see for the high tax on cars brought into Spain is to make people buy cars in Spain where by protecting the Spanish market, cant blame them for that, also once they found out they could do it and get away with it, it carried on, I suppose many pay it if they want the car in the country. 

Italy seems to have the best idea over this EU rubbish, they say they will not oppose any new rules or laws being made, to oppose them will cost us money, we just don't take any notice of them and carry on regardless  ignoring them.

We all know ignoring rules will eventually catch up with you especailly when you want something back or wnat help

I wonder how many UK EU funding applications will suffer under this current stance. Human nautre takes over does it not and remeber we are all simple human beings

At the end of the day if you have to pay import taxes and that is the rules then get over it as this is the cost of moving and research should keep you on track which I think DavidLud did quite correctly at the time

As additional funds have been sought by the Spanish taxman that does not seem fair or right if they got it wrong 12 months ago then it should be tough on them and they shoudl simply accept the mistake not chase soemone who thought they followed the rules and paid the appropriate tax

Many years ago I was attempting to pass through mainland Spain customs when a Guarda Civil officer dived in and started to unpack our bags, he nearly creamed his jeans when he noticed the cigarettes, "Gibraltar, Gibraltar" he shouted, "no La Cala Tobacos" says I producing the receipt. He then started bellowing "Confiscar" or something similar whilst ripping open an individual cigarette packet, and said that importing cigarettes into the UK was illegal, I ponted at him and said "bandido", he went bright red and made for his office, the lady on customs gave me a very nice smile and allowed me through.

Spain's general population are very nice, whilst it's govenment officials are as bent as a butcher's hook.

crookesey

good for you

~~Spain's general population are very nice, whilst it's govenment officials are as bent as a butcher's hook.

I think you can say that for just about every country in the world even the one close to many people's hearts on here - the UK

A bit off the car importation thread but the Chancellor has announced the 1.7bn has been cut in half and will be paid in 2 interest free payments next year.

Wonder what he had to give up for that? 

Oh, and for those who insist we should go the Swiss route, Switzerland has been told they may lose their trading agreements with the EU if they introduce an immigration cap. 

At the end of the day if you have to pay import taxes and that is the rules then get over it as this is the cost of moving and research should keep you on track which I think DavidLud did quite correctly at the time.

Agreed but the tax they had wanted on his car was based very close to what the car cost new, or in the least the base model price if bought new 12 years prior. So are these the rules then or someone got a faulty calculator and hoping know one notices.

A bit off the car importation thread but the Chancellor has announced the 1.7bn has been cut in half and will be paid in 2 interest free payments next year.

So it must have been only me then that saw him on TV news going red faced, shouting and stomping "No way are we going to pay this tax" suppose next it will be "I told them straight we wont pay it...Well half of it anyway" 

How can it be interest free when the country will have to borrow the amount to pay the tax which will have interest on that.

And of track once again,  Brussels has said NO mention has been made of reducing the amount owed just that in can be paid in instalments, also said Germany is getting a massive refund along with some other countries. Who's telling lies to who here?...Does it matter we will still pay.

As the UKIP man said "cameron wont pay by the 1st of December...But he will on the 2nd"

There is only Theresa May who can be classed as a heavyweight in the cabinet, David Davis and Boris Johnson are playing the waiting game, David Cameron needs to beef up and show some leadership qualities by bringing hevyweghts into his cabinet.

I reckon that this was a done deal when the £1.7 billion bill was sent, George can now claim a partial victory, big deal. 

Going back to Davids OP just for a minute 

David, tell you what I think, some funcionario took a quick look at your transaction and decided that he couldn't find a Ford Couger on his database and therfore took it upon himself to assume that you really had a Ford Kuga - hence the revaluation