# Surprise Tax



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I was contacted by our community administrators today, and discovered the existence of a municipal tax which I'd never heard of before. It's known as the "tasa de carruajes" and applies to the entry and exit of vehicles into garages - we have to pay as our apartment has a parking space in the communal garage, even though we don't use it as we don't have a car! This year's bill had gone to the previous owner who had paid it and was asking if I would reimburse him, which of course I did. Luckily it is only €44.51 for the year.

Apparently not all ayuntamientos impose these charges. Does yours? I hope there are no more lurking in the background.:fingerscrossed:

https://www.diariosur.es/malaga/201703/26/tasa-carruajes-impuestos-cajeros-20170325202949.html


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

We pay it for our communal garage, but not separately, it is included in the monthly community quota for the garage, along with all the other common bills. I wonder why yours isn't? The only charge for ours which is individual is the IBI, as each parking space has its own catastro ref. 

The fact you don't use the garage is kind of irrelevant, it's like the people who live on the ground floor of a block arguing that that their community fee should be cheaper as they don't use the lifts.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Yes, we have it except it's called a "vado permanente" and costs €14 a year. There's a sign attached to the garage door.

We don't actually use our garage, because the slope in the pavement is too steep, but it means nobody else can park in front of it, so we always have a parking space.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Overandout said:


> We pay it for our communal garage, but not separately, it is included in the monthly community quota for the garage, along with all the other common bills. I wonder why yours isn't? The only charge for ours which is individual is the IBI, as each parking space has its own catastro ref.
> 
> The fact you don't use the garage is kind of irrelevant, it's like the people who live on the ground floor of a block arguing that that their community fee should be cheaper as they don't use the lifts.


I don't know why it's not included in the community fees, but ours are low at €40 per month, so perhaps this is one of the reasons why.

Yes, I take your point about having to pay for things even if we don't use them personally.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> Yes, we have it except it's called a "vado permanente" and costs €14 a year. There's a sign attached to the garage door.
> 
> We don't actually use our garage, because the slope in the pavement is too steep, but it means nobody else can park in front of it, so we always have a parking space.


I did know about the vado permanente, have often seen the signs on people's garages, but for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that there would be a similar thing for communities.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Just as a side topic, the "street" onto which our garage entrance / exit adjoins is, according to the ayuntamiento, private, belonging to the community, not to the town hall. At least, this is the argument they give us when there are repairs needed to it, so the community has to foot the bills.
But when they charge us for the "vado permanente", our administrators argue that if the street is private, they cannot charge this, at which point they change their mind and say it is a public highway, so we have to pay the fees. Until the next repairs are needed, then it become private and ours again...


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> I don't know why it's not included in the community fees, but ours are low at €40 per month, so perhaps this is one of the reasons why.
> 
> Yes, I take your point about having to pay for things even if we don't use them personally.


 40€ a year I hope, not per month...


I think it depends how hard up the town halls are (or how greedy they are) as to how much the IBI is or whether there's a tax on XYZ. Some areas have a separate charge for rubbish for example and others include it in the IBI. A few years ago friends of ours were hit with a new tax - it was to do with how wide your entrance out on to the street was! We didn't have to pay it, but they did. We both live in houses, not flats. We'll be going back to the tax on windows next.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> Yes, we have it except it's called a "vado permanente" and costs €14 a year. There's a sign attached to the garage door.
> 
> We don't actually use our garage, because the slope in the pavement is too steep, but it means nobody else can park in front of it, so we always have a parking space.


Same in Jimena. 

You are not supposed to park in front of your own garage door though. I wouldn't put it past them to fine you for doing so.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> 40€ a year I hope, not per month...
> 
> 
> I think it depends how hard up the town halls are (or how greedy they are) as to how much the IBI is or whether there's a tax on XYZ. Some areas have a separate charge for rubbish for example and others include it in the IBI. A few years ago friends of ours were hit with a new tax - it was to do with how wide your entrance out on to the street was! We didn't have to pay it, but they did. We both live in houses, not flats. We'll be going back to the tax on windows next.


The tasa de carruajes is €44.51 for the year, but our community fees are €40 per month. They were the lowest of all the apartments we looked at when we were buying, and some of those where the fees were higher had fewer facilities than this one - in one building, the vecinos shared the cleaning of the communal areas between them to save paying someone to do it (I didn't much fancy taking my turn to mop the stairs and corridors!).

Our town hall doesn't levy a separate rubbish tax apart from the IBI, so I suppose it's a case of swings and roundabouts. They don't charge for copies of padron certificates either, which I know some neighbouring municipalities do (one of them apparently charges €10 each time, which seems excessive).


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Lynn R said:


> The tasa de carruajes is €44.51 for the year, but our community fees are €40 per month. They were the lowest of all the apartments we looked at when we were buying, and some of those where the fees were higher had fewer facilities than this one - in one building, the vecinos shared the cleaning of the communal areas between them to save paying someone to do it (I didn't much fancy taking my turn to mop the stairs and corridors!).
> 
> Our town hall doesn't levy a separate rubbish tax apart from the IBI, so I suppose it's a case of swings and roundabouts. They don't charge for copies of padron certificates either, which I know some neighbouring municipalities do (one of them apparently charges €10 each time, which seems excessive).


 Ahh yes, I got confused between _carruajes_ taxes and community fees.
I don't think residents mopping the stairs is unusual, is it? Some take it in turns to do the whole thing, other divide it into sections to be done at certain time intervals


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Ahh yes, I got confused between _carruajes_ taxes and community fees.
> I don't think residents mopping the stairs is unusual, is it? Some take it in turns to do the whole thing, other divide it into sections to be done at certain time intervals


One of the residents in our community does do the cleaning, but I noticed from the annual accounts that they are paid €300 per month for doing it - which is fine by me, because they do a good job.


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## trotter58 (Feb 8, 2017)

Overandout said:


> We pay it for our communal garage, but not separately, it is included in the monthly community quota for the garage, along with all the other common bills. I wonder why yours isn't? The only charge for ours which is individual is the IBI, as each parking space has its own catastro ref.
> 
> The fact you don't use the garage is kind of irrelevant, it's like the people who live on the ground floor of a block arguing that that their community fee should be cheaper as they don't use the lifts.


Our community fees and garage fees are also collected separately, it's because some of the communal garage parking spaces have been bought by local Spanish residents. IBI for each garage space is paid individually by each owner.


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## Mud (Oct 9, 2013)

In France, I had to pay a television tax even if I only used the television as a monitor for video game consoles and did not have it hooked up to watch tv on... the tax was for owning any television that COULD POSSIBLY be hooked up to cable for TV


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

The Vado Permanente only gives you free access to your garage and if others park there, the policia local can take action against them. It also gives you exclusive right to park in front of your garage. What annoys me is people who have a VP and then park in one of the, limited, open parking spaces in the street which are fought over by those of us who don't have a garage.


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