Since Law 18/2022 (the Crea y Crece law) an SL can be incorporated with as little as 1 euro of capital. There is a catch: until the legal reserve plus the capital reach 3,000 euros, at least 20% of each year's profit must go into that reserve, and if the company is wound up without enough assets, the owners answer jointly for the difference between 3,000 euros and the subscribed capital. If you are weighing registering as an autónomo against forming an SL, compare both in the guide autónomo or SL.
Day to day, an SL pays corporate tax on its profit rather than its owners paying IRPF on it, and it must keep full accounts under the Plan General de Contabilidad, certify its books, and file its annual accounts at the Registro Mercantil. You, as a partner who works in it, are paid a salary or dividends, and those do go through your own IRPF.
Typical mistake: using the company account as if it were yours. The SL's money does not belong to the partner: taking it out without a payslip, an invoice, or an approved dividend ends up as a debt to the company that you have to explain. In kontora double-entry bookkeeping keeps these movements apart, and returns are prepared box by box with deadline reminders.
Guides that use this term
- How to set up an SL in Spain: the steps, the legal deadlines and what it really costs
- Dormant Spanish SL: what stays mandatory when you are not trading
- Non-resident director or shareholder of a Spanish SL: what changes and what does not
- Digital certificate and Cl@ve for foreign autónomos in Spain: how to get them with an NIE and what each one lets you do
- How to keep your business books in Spain without knowing accounting
Related terms
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