# Car Suma Bill



## Rosemary (Aug 14, 2009)

We sold our car in February. We just received the SUMA bill. I contacted the guy we sold the car to and he says he understands that we are responsible for paying the year, even though we sold it on Feb 25th

If that is true then can I assume the garage we bought our new car from (its a brand new car) wiull have paid the SUMA? I cannot see any reference to this on thew paperwork for the new car and of course cant contact them till Weds due to fiestas

Any one know about this? I am worried


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

The owner of the car on Jan 1st is responsible for the year's tax.

What is more worrying (from your point of view) is that the new owner will not have registered the car in his name as this is not possible without having paid the current year's tax. How did you transfer the ownership of the car?

You, as owners of a brand new car are the first owners so unless you struck a deal at the dealership then I doubt they'd have piad the tax for you, I doubt they even could if they had wanted to.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Rosemary said:


> We sold our car in February. We just received the SUMA bill. I contacted the guy we sold the car to and he says he understands that we are responsible for paying the year, even though we sold it on Feb 25th
> 
> If that is true then can I assume the garage we bought our new car from (its a brand new car) wiull have paid the SUMA? I cannot see any reference to this on thew paperwork for the new car and of course cant contact them till Weds due to fiestas
> 
> Any one know about this? I am worried


I presume that you mean car TAX bill which may or may not be collected by the company called SUMA .....

Anyway, the answer is that whoever owned the vehicle on January 1st is responsible for the tax. This is the case even if they sold it on January 2nd. In most cases this cost could be passed on to the new owner if they are agreeable.

For new cars, the situation may be different. Certainly the garage will not have registered the car (with them as owners) else it would not be new when they came to sell it.

In the past I have insisted that the car tax was included in the deal.


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## Rosemary (Aug 14, 2009)

The new owner of our car made the transfer via an agency that does these things. Along with the forms he had to take a copy of the suma for last year. The new tax bill arrived last week in our name so I am assuming we have to pay it. Like this we are paying for 2 cars


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Whoever is legally registered as the owner of the vehicle on Jan 1st is responsible for the car tax for the whole of that year. 

I sold my car on December 24th and handed over my receipt for the 2012 tax to the buyer. He took the car back to his home province to register it there. I am hoping he is honest and I don't get billed for this year's tax, which hereabouts is paid in May. If I had sold it in April this year I still wouldn't have been able to hand over the tax receipt for this year as the bill wouldn't have been issued by the ayuntamiento yet!

I bought my new car on December 29th and have been waiting for my new papers (via a gesotría) from tráfico for *nine weeks* already. Apparently things get very slow at this time of year as there's a backlog of papers put in by people desperate to avoid being the legal owners on Jan 1st, plus of course delays from closed offices over the festive period.


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## malagaman2005 (Apr 23, 2008)

With regards to your new car, surely the Suma would have to be paid by the dealership in order to register it with Trafico that was certainly the case when we bought a new car back in 2006. It's a similar scenario to matriculating a foreign vehicle onto spanish plates, you first have to ITV it then the next stage is to pay the tax due and the Suma.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

I went to trafico myself when we exported our car and the form we completed was for export or sale. It was basically a notification that we no longer owned the car and there was a change of ownership / circumstance. I'm guessing that what the garage should have done, but maybe hasnt


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Stravinsky said:


> I went to trafico myself when we exported our car and the form we completed was for export or sale. It was basically a notification that we no longer owned the car and there was a change of ownership / circumstance. I'm guessing that what the garage should have done, but maybe hasnt


We did this by the way because we received a suma bill for the car long after it had gone and we were told we were liable to pay it even if we didnt own the car any more because the correct procedure hadnt been followed


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Stravinsky said:


> We did this by the way because we received a suma bill for the car long after it had gone and we were told we were liable to pay it even if we didnt own the car any more because the correct procedure hadnt been followed


When one trades a car via a used or second-hand car dealership, they don't tend to transfer the vehicles to themselves as it is far too expensive.

Once they are sold, then the transfer occurs. 

What this means, of course, is that the previous owner gets any tax bills until it is correctly transferred. Good car dealerships will refund this tax with no quibble (we're going through this now for a vehicle we sold last June - hope we get our money back).


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## soldierboy001 (Aug 23, 2012)

malagaman2005 said:


> With regards to your new car, surely the Suma would have to be paid by the dealership in order to register it with Trafico that was certainly the case when we bought a new car back in 2006. It's a similar scenario to matriculating a foreign vehicle onto spanish plates, you first have to ITV it then the next stage is to pay the tax due and the Suma.


When I bought my new car last June (my 2nd new car purchase in Spain) I paid my dealer for the car tax and number plates, no such thing as on the road price for new cars in Spain unless you strike a deal, and he then notifies and pays traffic, this process takes about 3 days.
As for annual re-tax this is as stated from the 1st of January but the bills are sent out via the company Suma in March and are due to be paid before the end of May failure to pay by then will cause you to get another bill which will have a fine added to it, each time you fail to pay another fine will be added and the car can not be registered by another owner until these fines are paid.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

I find this talk about 'Suma' quite confusing. Is it not something in Alicante alone? If so, it is not helping people in the rest of Spain to understand the system by referring to 'Suma'. I live in Madrid and am billed for car tax (impuesto municipal de vehículos) by my local council.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Madliz said:


> I find this talk about 'Suma' quite confusing. Is it not something in Alicante alone? If so, it is not helping people in the rest of Spain to understand the system by referring to 'Suma'. I live in Madrid and am billed for car tax (impuesto municipal de vehículos) by my local council.


See my post #3.

SUMA are a collections agency who operate in the Alicante area (so a very small part of Spain). I agree, it is confusing for people not living there.


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