The used-car transfer tax: why the tax office won't take your contract's word
Spain's ITP isn't assessed on the contract price but on official valuation tables. How it works and what happens if you under-declare.
The transfer tax (ITP) is the fiscal toll of buying a car from a private seller in Spain. The buyer pays it to their region's tax office, and in most regions it runs between 4% and 8%. Simple so far. What surprises people is the taxable base.
The official tables
Every year a ministerial order publishes values for every model plus depreciation percentages by age. Your car has an “official value” whether you know it or not. The tax is assessed on the HIGHER of the contract price and that table value.
The classic “just write €1,000 in the contract”
It doesn't work, and it leaves a trail. Declare below the tables and the region can issue a supplementary assessment with interest. And a contract with a fake price undermines any later claim: whatever you claim will be capped by what you said you paid.
When ITP doesn't apply
When the seller is a professional: the invoice then carries VAT instead. The same car can have different taxation depending on who sells it.
In practice
File form 620 (or your region's equivalent), pay, and keep the receipt: without it the DGT won't process the transfer. At Autamo the tax filing is part of the case, and the tax shows in the breakdown before you reserve — not as a surprise afterwards.