Company Formation

Setting up a company in Spain may be very different to the process in your home country, so we are here to tell you what is involved, advise you what is best for you particular circumstances and take you through the process.

Most people find that setting up a limited liability company is best for them. The process for forming a limited liability company (Sociedad Limitada) is relatively simple and only requires the directors to make at least on visit to Spain in order to officially sign for the company at the notary.

One of the first parts of forming a company is for all the directors to have the Spanish fiscal identity number called NIE (Numero de Identificación Extranjeros). Without the NIE you will not be able to form a company, the NIE is asked for and used for may other things in Spain and it is advisable to get this number as soon as possible. The application for the NIE can be done in your home country at our nearest Spanish Embassy or here in Spain at the appropriate office of the police for foreigner registration. We can take you through the NIE application process and either go with you to the police station to make the application, or even make the application on your behalf with a Power of Attorney. (Please see our section on NIE for further information).

For the company, you will need to give us your three choices of company name and a copy of the passport of one of the directors. We recommend that the company name be at least two words (no numerics or punctuations are allowed) and you can use any language you like, the name doesn’t have to be in Spanish! With these we will make an application to the Registro Mercantil (like Companies House in the UK) for the name to be approved and when approved we will be sent a certificate reserving the company name in the name of the director.

With the name certificate we will then need to go to the bank to lodge the share capital of the company, this is a minimum of 3006 euros. The directors of the company will need to accompany us to the bank in order to sign the bank documents. The bank will then give us a certificate proving that the share capital has been lodged, this we will need for when we go to the notary. This bank account will be opened in the name of the company and can be used as the company bank account when the company is up and running. Opening the bank account can be done on the same day that we go to the notary, so no need to make more than one trip to Spain – unless you would like of of course!

Before going to the notary we will write the statutes of the company and incorporate the activity of the company that you advise us.

With all the above, and of course the NIE’s of the directors, we will make an appointment for us to go to the notary office with the directors/shareholders to officially sign for the company. It is not an arduous process with the notary but of course very important and we will be there to help and answer any questions that you may have.

Within a few days after the notary signing we will receive the official documents of the company and with these we can then apply for the VAT (IVA) number for the company, pay the taxes and fully register the company with the Registro Mercantil to make sure the that the company is fully established and ready to start trading.