Is moving enough to get an exemption?
No. Moving your usual residence can create eligibility for specific relief, but each tax has its own conditions. An exemption must be claimed through the applicable procedure with supporting evidence. It does not remove technical approval, ITV or DGT registration requirements.
IGIC and IEDMT are different tests
For IGIC, review your previous residence, prior personal use of the vehicle, the move and entry dates, and restrictions on subsequent disposal. For IEDMT relief on moving from abroad to Spain, the legislation requires at least 12 consecutive months of usual residence outside Spain and at least six months’ use of the vehicle at that residence, alongside the other statutory conditions. A move from mainland Spain to Tenerife is not the same as a move from abroad to Spain.
For IGIC, AEAT distinguishes 185 days per calendar year in the previous residence when arriving from mainland Spain, the Balearics, Ceuta, Melilla or another EU member state, and 12 months when arriving from a third country. Six months of prior possession and use and the other conditions must also be met. Request the relief in the entry declaration; do not assume documents submitted later automatically secure it.
Prepare a dated evidence file
- Evidence of previous usual residence and the date you left.
- Evidence of your new address and the date of the move.
- Vehicle registration, purchase and insurance documents showing ownership and use.
- Transport or arrival documents establishing the vehicle’s entry date.
- Documents showing acquisition under normal tax conditions where the relief requires it.
A NIE alone does not establish the history of your usual residence. We check the evidence against the relevant tax rather than treating one document as proof of everything.
Deadlines: do not use one calendar for every tax
The import-relief window and the registration-tax deadline are different. IGIC residence-transfer relief generally concerns entry within one year of the move, with a conditional advance-entry route. Spanish registration-tax rules can require action within 30 days of the start of use, extended to 60 days when the qualifying residence-transfer exemption applies. These periods must be interpreted for your situation; the longer import window is not permission to drive indefinitely on foreign plates.
Restrictions after relief
Relief can impose restrictions on selling, lending or renting the car. Check the start date of each restriction: the IGIC and IEDMT procedures need not use the same event. Tell us before any proposed transfer so that tax consequences can be checked.
Before you ship the car
Send your residence history, vehicle ownership/use dates and proposed arrival date for review. If the vehicle has already arrived, provide the actual dates immediately. Do not assume a recently purchased vehicle will meet the prior-use condition.
