What it costs to run a company in Spain.

Spain charges very little to keep a company on the register. The cost of running one is the work: books kept to Spanish standards, accounts approved and deposited every year, a steady run of tax returns, and a payroll that pays social security each month. Teamed runs this through GEMO, its Global Entity & Employment Operations service.

People expect one annual bill and one annual form. A Spanish company answers to three bodies on three rhythms, and each one notices when you miss it.

The Registro Mercantil wants the annual accounts once the shareholders have approved them, and the company's official books once a year. The tax agency, the Agencia Tributaria, wants the corporate tax return after the year ends, payments on account during it, and VAT and salary withholding returns every quarter. The General Treasury of Social Security wants contributions for everyone on the payroll, every month.

The table shows what falls due, to whom and how often. The quarterly tax returns are the ones that decide whether a small company feels well run.

Every SL deposits its annual accounts with the Registro Mercantil, even a quiet one, under the Capital Companies Act. The order is fixed by law. The administrators draw the accounts up after the year ends, the shareholders approve them, which for a company with one owner is the parent's own decision, and the company deposits them at the registry soon after, each step with its own legal deadline.

The registry's fee is small. Depositing the accounts online, with no audit report, costs €55.95 before VAT on the registry's published table, with a small charge for the filing platform on top. What you actually pay for is the accountant who prepares the accounts and the tax returns.

That fee is the registry's own published figure, read from the Barcelona registry's table because the Madrid registry's could not be found, so we are waiting on direct confirmation from Madrid before we treat it as settled.

A small SL does not usually need an audit, which keeps the yearly cost down. Once the company grows past the size limits in the law, an auditor has to audit the accounts too. Missing the deposit brings a fine, and a deposit left missing for long closes the company's file at the registry to other filings.

The state's share is small. The government's fees are published, so each one is auditable against the official schedule, whoever files for you. The real cost is professional work, and most small companies buy it from a gestoría or an asesoría, Spain's administrative and tax advisers, who keep the books, file the quarterly returns and prepare the annual accounts. A company with a handful of invoices a month and no audit sits at the lower end of the range below.

Profit is taxed at 25%, under the Corporate Income Tax Act. A company in a group cannot use the lower rate for new companies, and the small-company rates measure the whole group's turnover, so a subsidiary of a larger group should plan on the full rate.

Once you employ anyone, the monthly rhythm takes over. The company pays social security for each person on the payroll every month, withholds income tax from salaries, and reports both. Each new starter is registered with social security before their first day, and each contract is reported to the public employment service.

Pay follows the collective agreement for your sector, which sets minimum salaries. The law also gives every employee extra payments, one at Christmas and another on a date the agreement sets, often in summer, unless the agreement spreads them across the monthly pay, so plan cash for those months. Spain also requires a daily record of each employee's working hours. Most small companies buy payroll in rather than run it themselves, and the monthly range above leaves payroll out, so add it for the size of your team.

The administrators. Spanish company law makes them responsible for drawing up the accounts and for the company meeting its obligations, and administrators who ignore the rules on losses can end up answering for the company's debts. An adviser can do the work, but the duty stays with the board.

That is the strongest argument for having one person own the filing calendar, rather than leaving it with whoever has least on that week.

The routes that form a company can also run it, and the choice matters more here because it repeats every quarter.

You can run it yourself with accounting software and an accountant for the year end. It suits a founder who lives in Spain, has no staff and few invoices.

A gestoría or asesoría suits a company with no employees yet. It keeps the books, files the quarterly and annual returns and deposits the accounts, and payroll is usually an extra.

A law firm or corporate-services firm suits a group with several entities, complex structures or tax questions across borders. You pay for the advice as well as the filing.

For companies that will employ people in Spain, Teamed is the best choice. With Teamed, you get 24/5 human support with a first response within 15 minutes, a designated person who has done this before, and payroll, social security and filings in one system from your first contractor to your tenth entity. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR when you're ready. Teamed already owns an entity in Spain.

If you are a founder on your own with nobody to pay, the first two routes will cost you less, and we would tell you so.