Relocation at Spain One Stop

Starting a new business in Spain

There are 10 things you need to do before you can start a business here in Spain

1.

First you need to get from the Mercantile Register the certification of uniqueness of your proposed company name (certificación negativa de la denominación social)  This usually takes three to four days to complete and costs between 7 and 14 euros.

 2.

 You must open a bank account for the company; deposit money and obtain a deposit certificate This usually takes one day and is free.

3.

Grant a public deed of incorporation before a notary public. This takes about a day and can cost over 450 euros. Because of all the paperwork involved a good Spanish lawyer is the best idea here. 

 4.

Submit Declaración Censal de Inicio de Actividad and obtain the Tax Identification Code (Codigo de Identificacion Fiscal, CIF) from the Delegación Provincial de la Agencia Estatal de la Administración Tributaria.

This takes approx 1 day to complete and is free.

5.

Pay the Asset Transfer Tax and Legal Documented Act Tax (“Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales y Actos Jurídicos Documentados”) to the local tax authority. You must pay this tax within 30 days of when the public deed of incorporation was granted and it must be filed with the local tax authorities, along with a copy of the public deed of incorporation and a copy of the tax identification number. All this takes one day and costs 1% of the capital.

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6.

You must then file the public deed of incorporation of the company for its registration with the Mercantile Registry. This takes 15 days and costs approx 170 euros but this can vary depending on the share capital.

In any case, the regulated applicable global tariff will not exceed EUR 2,181.67.

The company public deed of incorporation must be filed with the Mercantile Registry of the place where the company has its corporate address within 2 months of the date it was granted. For the public deed to be registered, it is necessary that the Asset Transfer and the Legal Documented Acts Tax has been paid and the tax identification number obtained.

Once the public deed of incorporation has been registered, the company incorporation will be published in the Official Journal of the Mercantile Registry. Upon registration, the company acquires the status of a legal entity.

According to Law 24/2005 (November 18, 2005), registration must be completed within 15 days. The law states that all communication between notaries and the registry should be electronic (with electronic notarial signature). If registration does not take place within the stated time, the registration fees are reduced by 30%.

 7.

Legalize company books

The book register of members

The minutes book.

The register books for VAT

Legalization is done by the Mercantile Registry. This is done at the Commercial Registry by filing the appropriate form in person or electronically. A certificate of electronic signature, required for online applications, may be obtained at www.registradores.org/scr/agenda, which takes about 2 days and costs EUR 69.60 plus VAT.

 Buying the books and legalizing them is about EUR 90

All this takes about 2 days

 8.

Obtain a municipal license to open business premises (Licencia Municipal de Apertura) at the county/town council (Departamento de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento)

This takes 15 days - 3 months, simultaneous with procedure 6

             At a cost of 350 euros. The time and cost to obtain the municipal license to  

             open a business premises (licencia municipal de aperture)depends on the type

             of license needed and on the company’s business activities

9.

File for social security and affiliate all workers with the local general treasury of social security (Tesoreria General de la Seguridad Social)

            Time to complete:

1 day (simultaneous with previous procedure)

The required documents are

 (a) the corresponding form;

 (b) a copy of the public deed of incorporation;

 (c) a photocopy of the applicant’s national identity document or power of

      attorney;

 (d) The company tax identification number. Registration of the company and affiliation of all the workers must be made before starting any business activities.

If you are going to employ people you will need to register each employee with the social security system and you will need these documents.

 (a) corresponding form (signed by both the company and the employee);

 (b) powers of attorney of the company representative;

 (c) a copy of the employee's national identity document (such as DNI, NIE, or passport); and 

 (d) a copy of the company representative's national identity card.

 10.

Notify the Delegación Provincial de la Consejería de Trabajo e Industria

You must keep a visits book (libro de visitas) at all times. Information that must be noted includes the details of the company and the work place and a description of its business activity.

You must keep the visits books legalized by the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate. These books must be available at all times to be scrutinized by the Social Security.

All prices quoted are approximate