Do you know just how much tax revenue your vehicle makes for the State? It’s a lot, collected by the Central Government, right down to your town hall.
Let’s break it down into the following categories: new vehicle purchase, taxes on fuel, road tax, 2nd-hand transfers, vehicle registration certificate, municipal road tax, change of ownership.
New vehicle purchase: when a new vehicle is purchased the State earns IVA and the Impuesto de Matriculación, both are one-off taxes. For the former it earnt 4,887m euros and the latter, 616m euros, giving a total of 5,493m euros.
Taxes on fuel: petrol and diesel have two types of taxes levied on them; IVA and Special Tax. The Government took 7,507m euros, which is about half of what it took in Special Tax (14,006m euros) giving a total of 21,513m euros.
Vehicle Registration Certificate: this is a one-off tax that you pay when you acquire a vehicle (Impuesto de Circulación) and it amounted to 2,925m euros in 2019. It’s the other document that you have to carry in your car together with the Vehicle Specifications Document.
Second-hand Vehicle Purchase: IVA, I believe, is only paid on commercial vehicles but you still have to go through the Impuesto de Matriculación again even on private acquisition; IVA 160m euros, Matriculación, 40m euros, and… wait for it… Property Transfer Tax, 332m euros, giving a total of 533m euros.
Local Road Tax: this is known as the Impuesto sobre Vehículos de Tracción Mecánica (IVTM) and is paid every year to your local town hall, bringing in a tidy 146m euros.
All these taxes meant that the State took 30,888m euros from vehicle owners during 2019, which is nearly three percent up on 2018… and we still haven’t taken into account road insurance, obligatory ITV inspections, garage repairs and spare parts!
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, anybody who thought that private car ownership would soon be a thing of the past when we’re all zooming around in Google cars or something of the kind, then they haven’t taken into account just how much the Government would lose in taxes…
One final point… it’s taken me hours to compile this so make sure you read the bloody thing! 😉
(News: Spain)