Spain
Spain: 6 company types, its taxes, banking and business environment, and what it is known for.
Forming a company
Company types in Spain
The 6 forms a founder can choose here, each with its own figures. Open one for its sources.
What it is known for
Where Spain is in the world’s top 10 on a measure anyone can check, the best rank first. Only the top is shown; a low rank is never stated.
- World’s1stWorld-leading exports Olive oilOlive oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modifiedUS$6.9 bn · 42.2% of world exports of 145 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s2ndWorld-leading exports Meat of swine, fresh, chilled or frozenUS$6.3 bn · 17.0% of world exports of 117 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s2ndWorld-leading exports Perfumes and toilet watersUS$4.3 bn · 15.1% of world exports of 199 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s10thTax-treaty network Income-tax treaties in force95 of 100 treaty networks we hold the tax authority's own list (tax-treaties collection) See the top 10
A rank is among everything the source reports for that year, so it moves when the source adds or drops economies. Exports include goods passing through for re-export. Nothing here is a recommendation.
Doing business here
Business accounts
Providers whose own published list of countries names Spain. A listing means a company formed here may apply, not that it will be accepted.
Not in our records No provider's country list has been read for Spain.
Payments and payroll
Services for taking payments, paying people and moving money, as each states where a business based in Spain may open an account.
StripeOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026
WiseOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026
DeelOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026- RevolutOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026
AdyenOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026SquareOpen to a business based herelist read 18 Aug 2026
For individuals only here: PayPal.
EU listings
Two lists a bank checks when it opens an account for a company or its owner.
- EU high-risk third countries (AML)
- Not listed
- EU non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes
- Not listedOfficial EUR-Lex, 52026XG01465, Annex I as of 2026-02-17
Official sites
The authorities’ own sites for Spain: where to register, file and check.
Business registerRegistro Mercantil (Colegio de Registradores de la Propiedad, Mercantiles y Bienes Muebles de España)registradores.org
Tax authorityAgencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT)sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Tax treaties in forcehacienda.gob.eshacienda.gob.es
- Business registerRegistro Mercantil Centralrmc.es
- Tax authorityAgencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT)agenciatributaria.es
Blocs and agreements
The trade arrangements Spain belongs to, as each arrangement’s own texts state them: since when, and what each covers. What a membership means for a business is for you to judge.
- European Union: internal market and customs union
- Single market · since 1986
Covers goods, services, establishment, capital, movement of people, a common external tariff.
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EU Member State since 1986, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Spain’s participation in the EU.
- European Union: VAT territory
- Inside it
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‘Community’ and ‘territory of the Community’ mean the territories of the Member States as defined in point (2);
- Euro area
- Monetary union · since 1999
Covers a common currency.
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EU Member State since 1986, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Spain’s participation in the EU.
- Schengen area
- Free movement area · since 1995
Covers movement of people.
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EU Member State since 1986, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Spain’s participation in the EU.
- European Economic Area
- Single market · since 1 January 1994
Covers goods, movement of people, services, establishment, capital.
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which now covers the EU and its 27 Member States, and three of the four EFTA members: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
- Andean Community
- Observer
Listed as observer country on the General Secretariat's page; no date given.
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La Comunidad Andina, integrada por Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú es un organismo internacional líder en integración en el continente
Regional and customs arrangements only, 36 of them; bilateral trade agreements are not yet in our records.
Tax
Company tax
Tax, and what the company owes the registry each year.
- Corporate income tax
- 25%
- Distributions
- Not in our records
- Audit
- Accounts must be audited (art. 263(1) LSC) unless, for two consecutive years, at least two of: assets not over EUR 2,850,000; net turnover not over EUR 5,700,000; average staff not over 50 (art. 263(2)).Official The registry or ministry page as of 2026-10-10
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Las cuentas anuales y, en su caso, el informe de gestión deberán ser revisados por auditor de cuentas.
- Small-company relief
- Not in our records
- Annual obligations
- Not in our records
- Annual registry fee
- Not in our records
VAT
The tax on what the company sells in Spain, and when it must register, as the tax authority states it.
- Standard rate
- 21%Official European Commission, Taxes in Europe Database situation on 2026-07-01
- Other rates
- 10% Food and drink for human or animal consumption, water, medicines for veterinary use, pharmaceutical products, housing, flowers and live plants, passenger transport, hotel and restaurant services, waste collection and treatment, and admission to cultural events
- 4% Basic foodstuffs (bread, flour, milk, cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, pulses, tubers and cereals), books, newspapers and magazines, human-use medicines, and vehicles for persons with reduced mobility
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Los tipos reducidos vigentes son el 10 por ciento y el 4 por ciento.
- Registration threshold
- No threshold: from the first taxable supply
no turnover threshold: the census declaration is filed before the activity or the operations begin
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Esta declaración debe presentarse, según los casos, con anterioridad al inicio de las correspondientes actividades o a la realización de las operaciones.
- Voluntary registration
- No
There is no below-threshold voluntary registration: a business that makes taxable supplies registers before it starts, and there is no turnover exemption to waive.
- A foreign company
- Registers from its first taxable supply; needs a local tax representative
A taxable person not established in the EU must appoint a representative in Spain for its VAT obligations, unless it is established in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla or in a state with a mutual assistance instrument equivalent to the EU's; businesses using the distance-sales and certain domestic-supply schemes are also exempt from appointing one. A business established in another EU state registers without a representative.
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Esta declaración debe presentarse, según los casos, con anterioridad al inicio de las correspondientes actividades o a la realización de las operaciones.
- Returns filed
- Quarterly
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La presentación de la autoliquidación y, en su caso, el ingreso del modelo 303 se efectuará en los veinte primeros días naturales del mes siguiente a la finalización del correspondiente período de liquidación trimestral
- Tax authority
- Registration page read 2026-10-22
Tax calendar
When the main returns and payments fall due in Spain, tax year 2025, as the tax authority states it.
- Corporate tax return
- 6 months and 25 days after the end of the accounting period · each year
the corporate income tax return is filed within the 25 calendar days following the six months after the end of the tax period; for a calendar-year company the window is 1 to 25 July (for the 2025 period, up to 27 July 2026 under the campaign order). Companies whose tax period does not end on 31 December compute the six months from their own year end.
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La declaración se presentará en el plazo de los 25 días naturales siguientes a los 6 meses posteriores a la conclusión del período impositivo.
- Corporate tax, final payment
- 6 months and 25 days after the end of the accounting period · each year
the corporate income tax is settled on the annual return, so the voluntary payment period is the same as the filing period — for a calendar-year company, 1 to 25 July; the return includes the payment document and the debt may be paid in the same window (or deferred).
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La declaración se presentará en el plazo de los 25 días naturales siguientes a los 6 meses posteriores a la conclusión del período impositivo.
- Corporate tax, instalments
- 20 April · each quarter
the corporate income tax instalment must be paid during the first twenty calendar days of April, October and December (three payments a year, each on account of the tax period in progress on the first day of those months). The rule records the April payment; no payment is due when the instalment is nil, and companies with turnover above €6 million must file even a negative instalment.
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El pago fraccionado debe realizarse durante los primeros veinte días naturales de los meses de abril, octubre y diciembre.
- Personal income-tax return
- 30 June · each year
the personal income tax (and wealth tax) return is filed within the annual campaign; for Renta 2025 the internet campaign ran from 8 April to 30 June 2026, the closing date being 30 June. The AAT can also prepare the return by telephone or in person within dates inside the same window.
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8 de abril hasta el 30 de junio de 2026 : presentación por Internet de las declaraciones de Renta y Patrimonio 2025
- Personal income tax, final payment
- 30 June · each year
the tax is paid on filing the annual return, by 30 June; the taxpayer may pay in full or split the amount into two instalments — 60% by 30 June and the remaining 40% by 6 November of the same year (the second instalment may be domiciled for payment).
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8 de abril hasta el 30 de junio de 2026 : presentación por Internet de las declaraciones de Renta y Patrimonio 2025
- Personal income tax, instalments
- Day 20 of the following month · each quarter
the IRPF instalment for the first three quarters is paid between day 1 and day 20 of April, July and October, and the fourth quarter between day 1 and day 30 of January of the following year. Where the deadline falls on a non-working day it ends on the next working day.
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los tres primeros trimestres, entre el día 1 y el 20 de los meses de abril, julio y octubre
- VAT return
- 20 days after the end of the quarter · each quarter
the quarterly VAT return is filed between day 1 and day 20 of the month following the quarter (April, July, October) and the fourth-quarter return between day 1 and day 30 of January. Large businesses (turnover above €6,010,121.04, REDEME registrants and certain others) file monthly, between day 1 and day 20 of the following month. Where the last day is non-working the deadline moves to the next working day.
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Del 1 al 20 del mes siguiente al período de liquidación (abril, julio, octubre).
- Payroll withholding
- Day 20 of the following month · each month
employers and entities with a monthly obligation file the withholding return (modelo 111) within the first twenty days of each month, in respect of the amounts withheld for the immediately preceding month. Taxpayers without a monthly obligation file within the twenty calendar days following the end of the quarter.
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Para las personas y entidades con obligación mensual se presentará dentro de los veinte primeros días de cada mes.
Running the company
Running a company here
Not in our records The authorities’ pages on running a company have not been read for Spain yet.
Economy and trade
What it exports
Goods Spain exported, by product, as a share of its goods exports each year. Exports include goods passing through for re-export. A share describes Spain’s own trade; it does not compare places.
| Product (HS heading) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Value, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the transport of persons (other than those of heading 8702), including station wagons and racing cars HS 8703 | 8.7% | 10.6% | 10.7% | US$42.7 bn |
| Medicaments (excluding goods of heading 3002, 3005 or 3006) consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, put up in measured doses (including those in the form of transdermal administration systems) or in forms or packings for retail sale HS 3004 | 3.6% | 3.9% | 3.7% | US$14.9 bn |
| Parts and accessories of the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705 HS 8708 | 2.8% | 3.2% | 3.2% | US$12.8 bn |
| Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude; preparations not elsewhere specified or included, containing by weight 70 % or more of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from bituminous minerals, these oils being the basic constituents of the preparations; waste oils HS 2710 | 4.2% | 3.5% | 3.0% | US$12 bn |
| Olive oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified HS 1509 | 1.2% | 1.1% | 1.7% | US$6.9 bn |
| Meat of swine, fresh, chilled or frozen HS 0203 | 1.5% | 1.6% | 1.6% | US$6.3 bn |
| Motor vehicles for the transport of goods HS 8704 | 1.2% | 1.9% | 1.5% | US$5.9 bn |
| Human blood; animal blood prepared for therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic uses; antisera, other blood fractions and immunological products, whether or not modified or obtained by means of biotechnological processes; vaccines, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms (excluding yeasts) and similar products; cell cultures, whether or not modified HS 3002 | 2.0% | 1.9% | 1.3% | US$5.1 bn |
| Perfumes and toilet waters HS 3303 | 0.67% | 0.83% | 1.1% | US$4.3 bn |
| Gold (including gold plated with platinum), unwrought or in semi-manufactured forms, or in powder form HS 7108 | 0.66% | 0.91% | 1.0% | US$4.1 bn |
Total goods exports, 2024: US$400.7 bn. The ten largest headings are shown.