Cost of Starting a Business in Spain: The Complete Guide for UK Residents

Launching a Spanish business as a UK resident isn't just about choosing the right city or sector, but about understanding exactly what you'll spend before you commit.

This guide breaks down the cost of starting a business in Spain into clear, budgetable line items so you can compare it realistically with staying in the UK or choosing another EU country.

And because most of those bills land in EUR, we’ll explain how Wise Business can help you pay costs and receive payments in EUR at the mid-market exchange rate, with no hidden fees.

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Key takeaways

Takeaway	Summary
💰 Minimum Capital	An S.L. typically requires €3,000 in practical capital², while an S.A. requires €60,000 with at least 25% paid at formation².
⚖️ Legal & Notary Fees	Professional and legal fees for an S.L. often range from €1,500 to €3,000¹ and notary fees alone typically cost €400–€600⁴.
📝 Admin & Registration	Company name registration costs €20–€40¹,⁴ while Mercantile Registry fees usually fall between €250 and €400¹.
🆔 Identity Documents	Foreign founders must obtain an NIE for roughly €10–€20¹ and a company NIF as part of the registration process.
🏢 Operating Costs	Ongoing employer social security contributions are approximately 30.57% of gross salary for employees in 2025⁵.
📉 Taxation Rates	The standard corporate tax is 25%, but new companies may benefit from a 15% rate for the first two profitable years⁶.
💱 Currency Management	Using a multi-currency account like Wise Business helps manage GBP/EUR exchange rates when paying local fees or funding capital.
📁 Documentation	UK residents should budget a few hundred EURs for apostilled documents and sworn translations required for Spanish authorities.

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Cost of setting up a business in Spain

Before getting into specific numbers, it helps to understand the main cost buckets you'll face as a UK resident:

• Minimum capital: what you must inject into the company as share capital (mainly for limited companies)
• Professional and legal fees: lawyers, notaries, and formation agents
• Administrative and registration costs: government fees, company name registration, tax and registry costs
• Sector-specific permits: e.g. hospitality licences, health & safety approvals
• Ongoing operating costs: rent, payroll, social security and tax compliance

For a straightforward Sociedad Limitada (S.L.), the most common form for SMEs and startups, typical company formation in Spain fees (notary, mercantile registry and legal services) often fall in the rough range of €1,500–€3,000, depending on how much you outsource¹.

If you operate as a sole trader (autónomo), your average cost to start a business in Spain is much lower: there's no share capital requirement, and you mainly pay registration and advisory fees.

However, most UK residents planning to hire staff, raise external funding, or limit personal liability will lean towards an S.L. rather than staying as an autónomo.

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💡 If you are using your UK income or savings when setting up a business in Spain, a multi-currency account like Wise Business lets you convert GBP to EUR at the mid-market rate. You can then hold EURs and pay invoices locally, which can be useful when your notary, lawyer and registry want to be paid in EUR.

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Minimum capital requirements

If you are a UK resident, the main business types you'll typically consider are:

• Autónomo (sole trader) – no minimum capital, but you're personally liable
• Sociedad Limitada (S.L.) – private limited company, the standard SME vehicle
• Sociedad Anónima (S.A.) – public limited company, used for larger or capital-intensive businesses

For the purposes of this guide (and in line with most formation providers and corporate sources), we'll treat the minimum "practical" capital for an S.L. as €3,000, and for an S.A. as €60,000²:

S.L. (Sociedad Limitada)
* Traditional minimum share capital: €3,000, normally fully paid in at incorporation
* Capital can be cash or certain assets
* Most small/mid-sized UK entrepreneurs choose this structure

S.A. (Sociedad Anónima)
* Minimum capital: €60,000, with at least 25% paid up at formation
* Typically used when you plan to list, issue shares widely, or need a "heavier" structure

Note: Recent reforms allow some S.L.s to be created with very low share capital (even €1), but some legal and tax specialists have pointed out that this is often impractical and may trigger extra obligations until you build reserves³, so some foreign founders still treat €3,000 as the de-facto minimum.

From a UK perspective, this incorporation cost in Spain isn't really "spent", as it becomes company equity, but you do need to have the cash in EURs and be able to prove payment. Usually:

1. You open a provisional bank account in Spain
2. You deposit the share capital (e.g. €3,000)
3. The bank issues a capital certificate for the notary and mercantile registry

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💡 You can use Wise Business to convert GBP to EUR at the mid-market rate* and hold the EUR in advance with local account details for Spain.

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Professional and legal fees

When it comes to company formation in Spain, fees for professional support are often the largest cash outlay after capital. For foreign founders, typical elements include:

1. Legal and advisory services

Most UK residents work with a local lawyer or gestoría to handle:

• Choosing the right legal form (autónomo vs S.L. vs S.A.)
• Drafting articles of association and shareholder agreements
• Checking tax residency, double-tax treaty interactions and group structuring
• Handling powers of attorney if you're incorporating remotely

Typical legal fees for straightforward S.L. incorporation for foreigners run around €300–€800 for basic legal services if you're reasonably hands-on, up to €1,000–€1,500+, where the firm handles more steps end-to-end or structures more complex shareholdings⁴.

2. Notary fees

All company incorporations must be formalised before a Spanish notary who verifies identities and documentation, incorporates the company by notarising the deed (escritura), and often arranges provisional tax numbers and electronic submissions.

Notary fees are regulated and normally scale with company capital and complexity. For a standard S.L., you'll usually pay €400–€600 for the notary appointment and incorporation deed⁴.

3. Translations and powers of attorney

If you sign from the UK, you may also need to budget for:

• Apostilled documents (e.g. UK company docs, birth certificates)
• Sworn translations into Spanish
• A power of attorney so your Spanish lawyer can sign at the notary

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💡 Most Spanish law firms and notaries invoice in EUR. With a UK high-street business account. With Wise Business, you can:

• Get local EUR account details (IBAN)
• Pay your Spanish lawyer, notary or consultant via local EUR transfers
• Track exact FX fees upfront and expense them cleanly in your UK books

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This keeps your business registration cost in Spain predictable right from the professional-fees stage.

Administrative and registration costs

Beyond professional services, there are mandatory government and registry charges. For a typical S.L. setup, your business registration cost in Spain will include:

1. Company name registration

You must secure a unique name via the Central Mercantile Register (negative name certificate / certificado negativo). Typical fees are roughly €20–€40^1,4.

2. Mercantile Registry fees

Registering the incorporation deed with the Registro Mercantil finalises the company. Registry fees depend on capital and length of the deed (a common range for S.L.s is roughly €250–€400)¹.

3. NIE and NIF costs

As a foreign founder, you'll need NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjero) for each foreign director/shareholder. This government fee is usually around €10–€20 per person¹.

You'll also need a company NIF (tax identification number), issued when your company is registered. The number itself doesn't carry a large standalone fee but is tied to your incorporation and registry submissions.

Some formation packages quote a combined government fees range of €215–€280 (name certificate, registry fees, and NIE)⁴.

4. Tax and municipality registrations

You'll also register:

• For corporate tax with the Spanish Tax Agency
• For VAT (IVA), where relevant
• Locally with the town hall for opening licences, signage, or terrace use if you run a restaurant, bar, or retail unit

Fees here vary by municipality and sector. For many service businesses operating fully online, this part can be relatively light. For hospitality or bricks-and-mortar retail, licensing can add hundreds of EURs more.

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💡 With a UK-owned business setup in Spain, expenses often involve settling town hall invoices or registry fees via bank transfer online.

Using Wise Business with an EUR IBAN lets you pay many of these costs as if you already had a Spanish account.

You can convert to EUR from your UK GBP account at transparent FX rates, and keep UK and Spanish costs clearly separated in one dashboard.

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Recurring operating costs

Once you're incorporated, you move from one-off incorporation costs in Spain to ongoing operating costs. These matter just as much for budgeting, especially if you're comparing Spain to staying fully UK-based. Let's go over the key recurring items.

1. Premises and utilities

Office/co-working space rent varies dramatically between central Madrid or Barcelona and smaller cities like Valencia, Málaga or regional towns. Co-working remains common for early-stage teams. Utilities like electricity, water, gas and broadband are generally paid monthly via direct debit in EURs.

2. Payroll and social security

If you hire employees in Spain, your ongoing cost of starting a business in Spain jumps because employer social security is substantial. In 2025, general employer social security contributions are around 30.57% of gross salary, with employees contributing around 6.48%, excluding accident insurance⁵.

On top of that, there are solidarity and pension-related levies that can increase the total cost of employment for higher earners. You also need to consider payroll administration (often handled by your gestoría), and statutory benefits, paid holidays and severance rules.

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💡 If you have a UK-facing businesses (e.g. agencies or SaaS companies) operating from Spain, you can use Wise Business to:

• Receive client payments in GBP, EUR or USD
• Convert what's needed into EUR for payroll and Spanish social security
• Keep extra GBP or USD for UK costs or online tools

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3. Corporate tax and accounting

The standard corporate tax rate in Spain is 25%, but newly created companies usually benefit from a reduced 15% rate for their first two profitable years, subject to conditions⁶. You'll likely pay for monthly or quarterly accounting (bookkeeping, VAT returns) and annual accounts and corporate tax filings.

Note: This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited, its subsidiaries or affiliates. It should not be treated as advice from, or a communication with, HMRC, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining business advice from a tax advisor or any other professional.

For an SME, accounting retainers commonly range from modest fees for micro-companies to several hundred EURs per month once you have staff and multiple VAT obligations.

These services are usually invoice-based, paid in EURs. Paying these regular invoices via Wise Business EUR transfers can work well if your revenue is still mostly in the UK and you want to minimise FX spreads and cross-border payment fees.

Calculating your total investment

To get a realistic average cost to start a business in Spain as a UK resident, it's helpful to break things into one-off vs recurring costs and then convert everything back into pounds in your planning spreadsheet.

1. One-off setup model for an S.L.

For a lean professional-services S.L. (no premises, 1–2 directors, simple shareholding), a rough, illustrative budget might look like:

• Share capital (S.L.): €3,000
• Legal/advisory fees: €800–€1,500
• Notary and registry costs: €600–€1,200
• Government and registration fees (NIE, name certificate, etc.): €200–€300
• Translations, apostilles and admin: €200–€500 (highly variable)

So your new business cost in Spain in cash terms for a basic S.L. often lands somewhere around €4,800–€6,500, depending on how much you outsource.

Only part of that (the professional and admin fees) is a true "setup expense", while the share capital is tied up but still belongs to the company.

2. Recurring costs for year one

Now add your first-year running costs:

• Accounting and compliance: monthly retainer with a gestoría
• Payroll & employer social security: approximately 30–35% on top of gross salaries
• Rent and utilities (optional if remote)
• Insurance, software, marketing, and travel between the UK and Spain

This is where startup costs in Spain for foreigners often exceed what you might pay as a purely UK-based company, particularly once payroll and social security are included.

On the other hand, you may benefit from lower office rents in some regions, local talent for EU-centric roles, and access to Spanish and EU markets.

3. Building a GBP/EUR-aware budget

From a UK point of view, the price of setting up a business in Spain can be determined by the exchange rate you get. A practical approach can be to:

1. List all expected EUR-denominated costs (capital, fees, rent, salaries)
2. Add a buffer for unforeseen items
3. Decide how much to fund in EUR upfront vs leave in GBP
4. Use Wise Business to convert GBP into EUR at the mid-market rate and hold them in EUR until you need to pay Spanish bills

This gives you a clearer picture of your true business setup expenses in pounds, and helps you compare Spain against other possible expansion locations.

Navigate the initial costs of setting up a business in Spain with Wise Business

As a UK resident, the most frustrating part of paying incorporation costs in Spain is often the banking: you're trying to pay Spanish professionals, utilities and taxes in EURs while your main income is still in pounds.

Traditional business banking solutions can sometimes push you towards expensive SWIFT transfers and opaque FX mark-ups.

However, with Wise Business, you can exchange funds at the mid-market exchange rate, with no hidden fees.

With Wise Business, you can:

• 🌍 Send money to 140+ countries at the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees or sneaky exchange rate markups (product availability varies by region; please check the Wise website for local availability)

• 📥 Receive payments using 8+ local account details for 24 currencies

• 💰 Hold money in 40+ currencies

• ⚡ Use the batch payments tool to create and send up to 1,000 payments in a single transfer

• 👥 Run payroll and make international payments for up to 1,000 employees all over the world

• 💳 Get business debit cards with 0.5% cashback for you and your team to keep track of team expenses and spend all over the world

• 🏢 Manage cash in 55+ currencies across international offices from a single business account and move money between business accounts in seconds (exact speeds can vary depending on individual circumstances and may not be the same for all transactions)

• 🔄 Connect and sync every business transaction to your favourite accounting software, including Xero, Quickbooks, and more

• 🔐 Create your own payment approvals process to manage your team better with customised access for different team members

• 📑 Create custom professional invoices and schedule invoice payments for future dates

• 📈 Earn returns on GBP, USD and EUR with Wise Interest (Capital at risk, growth not guaranteed. Your money is at risk if governments default or interest rates go negative. Visit https://payout-surge.live/gb/interest/%3C/a%3E to find out more)

• 🔗 Create payment links and QR codes to get paid easily

• ⚙️ Automate payouts with the Wise API (comes with 24/7 customer support, a sandbox account to test integrations, API tokens, and clear documents on how to implement and make the most of our API)

Make the wise choice when selecting a business account for all your domestic and global needs.

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FAQs

What is the minimum capital required to start a business in Spain?

For most UK founders setting up a Sociedad Limitada (S.L.), you should plan on contributing around €3,000 in share capital, which is the usual practical minimum, even though recent reforms allow lower theoretical amounts.

The larger Sociedad Anónima (S.A.) structure requires €60,000 in capital, with at least 25% paid at formation, so it's generally reserved for bigger or more complex businesses.

What are the initial fees and legal costs when setting up a Spanish business?

Beyond share capital, you'll usually pay a mix of legal, notary and registration fees.

For a standard S.L. set up by a foreign founder, professional fees (lawyer or gestoría plus notary) plus official registry and name-registration charges commonly land in the €1,500–€3,000 range, depending on how much you outsource.

You may also need to budget a few hundred EURs for sworn translations and apostilles if you sign documents from the UK.

What types of companies can a UK resident register in Spain?

The three main options are autónomo (sole trader), S.L. (private limited company) and S.A. (public limited company).

An autónomo has no minimum capital but offers no limited liability. The S.L. is the default for most SMEs and startups because it combines limited liability with a relatively low capital requirement (around €3,000).

The S.A. is used for larger or investment-heavy projects thanks to its €60,000 capital threshold and more flexible share structure, but it comes with stricter governance rules.

What are the ongoing operating costs I should budget for in Spain?

After incorporation, you'll deal with recurring costs such as accounting, rent, payroll and taxes. Employer social security contributions are a major line item: they're roughly 30% of gross salary, with employees contributing just over 6%, so total employment cost is noticeably higher than gross pay alone.

On the tax side, Spain's general corporate tax rate is 25%, but many new companies benefit from a reduced 15% rate for their first two profitable years if they meet the conditions.

How do I register a company name and get a Tax Identification Number (NIF) in Spain?

First, you apply for a negative name certificate from the Central Mercantile Register to prove your chosen name isn't already taken (the fee is usually a few tens of EURs).

Once your incorporation deed has been signed before a notary and registered with the Mercantile Registry, the authorities issue a company NIF, which is the tax ID you'll quote on invoices and returns.

In practice, your lawyer or gestoría will manage these steps and roll the small state fees into their overall formation quote.

How can I manage UK–EUR money transfers for my new Spanish business?

Most UK founders need to accept income in GBP, EUR or USD and then pay fees, suppliers and taxes in EUR.

A multi-currency business account, such as Wise Business**, lets you receive payments using local GBP account details** and an EUR IBAN, hold 40+ currencies, and convert between them at the mid-market rate* with transparent fees. You can then send low-cost SEPA transfers to Spanish bank accounts rather than using expensive international wires each time you pay a local invoice.

What is the difference between an S.L. and an S.A. company structure in Spain?

The S.L. (Sociedad Limitada) is designed for small and medium companies: it has a relatively low practical capital requirement (about €3,000), simpler governance and more restrictions on share transfers, which suits closely held businesses.

The S.A. (Sociedad Anónima) is intended for larger or capital-intensive companies: it needs at least €60,000 in share capital, can more easily issue or list shares, and follows tighter corporate rules. For most UK SMEs, the S.L. is cheaper and more appropriate, while the S.A. tends to make sense only when you have bigger fundraising or listing plans.

Do I need a Spanish bank account immediately to start a business?

In most cases, you'll need a Spanish bank account at some point, particularly to deposit share capital for an S.L. or S.A. and to handle payroll, direct debits and local card payments. However, during the early stages, you can manage many costs using a multi-currency account like Wise Business, which provides an EUR IBAN for receiving and paying in EURs while your Spanish bank account is still being opened and verified.

Sources:

1. ImmoAbroad – Registration Costs in Spain
2. Orsa Saiwai – Establishing a business in Spain and other EU countries
3. Conesa Legal - Why you shouldn't set up your Limited Company with only €1 of share capital
4. Lawants – Spain Company Documents: Requirements, Fees and How to Obtain Them
5. Link Compliance – Spain's Workforce Overview
6. Worldwide tax summaries PwC – Spain: Corporate - Taxes on corporate income

Sources last checked on 24th February 2026