# What is to stop you from buying a car in Spain?



## IanW (Jun 30, 2012)

Hi,

I thought under EU rules citizens of Europe can buy their goods from any member country.

The British will often buy cars from Europe to save money, so why can't a resident living in Portugal do the same?

I am guessing many goods are easy to buy over the border like white goods, but maybe I am unaware of something obvious with cars?

Thanks.


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

IanW said:


> Hi,
> 
> I thought under EU rules citizens of Europe can buy their goods from any member country.
> 
> ...


possibly nothing will stop you buying a car in Spain........... but there have been quite a lot of reports recently from a lot of areas that you have to be a registered resident to do so


at the very least you need a NIE (fiscal) number


----------



## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

You can buy in Spain but you'll reguire one of the following, official residence permit
proof that you are a Spanish home owner, proof of being a registered inhabitant of a town, the certificado de empadronamiento, a rental contract for a minimum one year or a NIE/NIF number.

You can't then *immediately* import to Portugal ISV (car taxation) free, because you won't have owned car or have been a Resident in Spain for the required time.

If a Portuguese Resident you could buy and import from Spain or another EU country (subject to that countries car buying laws) as a personal import and paying ISV, savings if any all depends on the car you import.

Cars don't come under the EU "free trade between member states" each EU country follows the same guidelines on import of cars but they are allowed to have their own import taxes and conditions.


----------



## steve01 (Dec 8, 2010)

Hi,
When you bring any car into Portugal for more than 6 months you have to register it.

Regardless of which country you bought it from - Spain for example.
you have 3 things to do .
Visit IMTT - a bit like dvlc and register it - easy
Visit ipo and have a special 'mot import test' - easy
Vist Alfandanga (problably not spelt correctly) - customs and pay any duty owed.

You can import 1 car per person if you're resident here duty free - 
To not pay duty theres a suitcase full of paperwork involved.
Legal ownership of the car, logbook, receipts tax/ duty paid etc.
starting the process within 6 months of arriving.
You must have owned it for at least 12 months before you enter Portugal
COC - certificate of conformity - not all cars conform to Portuguese rules.
Proof of current residence
Proof of old residence
Proof of quitting old residence / letter from british consul etc
and much much more

Or

you pay duty - the formula basically works on the co2 emissions, engine size etc and gives you a totally unbelievable figure
For example for my 8 years old merc c270 worth about 15k the import duty would have been around 28k.

thats why no-one imports cars from Spain - or the entire Portuguese car market would disappear over night.

Welcome to one of the worst aspects of Portugal


----------

