Car Tax

I have a spanish car which I use only for holidays the road tax runs out in Jan 09 I wont be back in Spain until April 09 does it matter if the road tax is not paid in Jan is there any extra cost for not paying it on time due to I dont live in Spain can anybody give me advice.

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We have recently bought our Spanish car and when talking about road tax to the dealer he advised us that your local council has 1 month each year when they do road tax so it doesn't matter when it runs out, it gets renewed in that month. Ours runs out in December (I think they all run Jan-Dec) but Pulpi do their's in May or June. He did say that british people sometimes have difficulty in accepting they can use a car that doesn't have current road tax - but it's the norm over here. 

Maybe someone who's been here longer can confirm this?

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I don't own a car in Spain but every March I get a suma bill (for car tax) in the previous owners name.

She moved to Australia a couple of months before I bought the property and she gave the car to the person who acted as her power of attorney.  I think he kept the car as payment but although he pays the tax each year he hasn't changed over ownership.

I think there's a time scale as to when the bill must be paid.

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On the bill, there should be a box titled "periodo pago". Mine is 1st April to 14th June, for the current calender year. It must be paid during this window, or you will incur a penalty. If you don't live in Spain, your best bet is to pay it by direct debit. When you visit in April, if you haven't already received the bill for 2009, take the 2008 bill to your bank, or the relevant dept. at your local town hall, to set this up.

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