And try to find a way to cover up their previous black income. (in Mallorca anyway)

Mallorca is a poster child at the moment. But I'm pleased to see that at least some of the blatent corruption here is being exposed. There's still a lot going on, though.

Madrid still the best place for a foreign investor to start a business in Spain

http://www.slideshare.net/promomadri...eign-investors

It is expensive yes, but not difficult

What obstacles are you talking about? The OP does web design, it couldnt be more simple. No premises or health and safety certificates to think about, no employees to hire etc. You can even claim some of your rent and utilities as tax deducatable

This comment in the Telegraph from someone who works for an international company in Spain.

Benjamin Hurley writes:

I work in Spain at the moment, for a large international company, I can tell you first hand layoffs are on the increase and a sense of despair and paranoia is in the air...one thing not covered however in this is that the new changes in employment law (last month) have added substantially to the increase in redundancies, it's now cheaper and easier to fire people than ever before, the same day the new laws were passed, mass layoffs took place....

The main problem I see here, is the complete lack of ingenuity and entrepreneurship. I worked in the US before i was hired here and the contrast in work ethic and motivation is stark. But that said the Spanish people are held back by government bureaucracy, I don't believe its something endemic to them, it's possibly the most expensive and complex place for a young person to start a business in Europe....

They need to leave the EU, lower taxes, cut the red tape and let the people, not the government sector drive the economy....

That's the bad news. The good news is that now that it's less risky to hire people, more companies will start doing exactly that. But it's still damned expensive to run a business in Spain, especially if you haven't the political connections.

Give businesses an incentive to set up operations in Spain (e.g., lower taxes or a 10-year tax abatement) and watch the business move in and start hiring, and people paying taxes rather than living on the dole.

Of course, the EU would have kittens at such a notion. Surely offering business more incentive to base in Spain would be "unfair" competitive practices - especially for the likes of Germany. Nope, won't have that!

This is partly true, but only partly

But it has nothing to do with the OPs Q, she is talking about a simple web design business

A few years ago there would have been loads of work for web design because the local governments were giving lots of IT grants to small businesses to update their IT and start or improve their website

Not anymore though

Yes, to grow your small business into a medium or large business in Spain you need help from the government organiasations and trade associations. This is both a good and bad thing. Bad because unless you know the way it is difficult to make contacts especially if you arent fluent in Spanish, good because it enables small companies to work together as a cooperation.

There are 100s of Andalucian trade associations. My OH has experience working with them. Their objectives are entirely positive, but as with many government organisations they are incredibly inefficient

I know a company in Spain that came in on the back of incentives etc, but after 3 years they are not getting any renewals so now only employ for 6months and also shifting most if not all of their work to Asia.

the theory says Benjamin Hurley should know what he is talking about, but as a web product manager for an International Recruitment company are his comments biased as he has only been in Spain for 7 months ?

Fuunily enough, foreign investment in Spain is actually increasing

http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/04/dire...ases-year-row/
I feel it's very premature to criticise the PP government, as they have always said that the first 6 months of 2012 would be very hard. They also claim that by 2013 growth will resume, as a result of their measures. The first part of their prediction has come to pass - let's see if they get the second bit right! (they turned around the unemployment figures the last time they were in power).

Well, apparently the "incentives" suck, eh? Our leadership needs to actually think through their decisions for once, put more of the responsibility for prosperity in the hands of those most qualified to generate it (politicians and certainly the government are least qualified), and have a look around this world. No wonder the rest of the world runs circles around us.

Try to register an internet business name, we started in July last year, still waiting. I wish people would not give information, when they obviously haven't got a clue.

This is not good information, this is misleading and outright dangerous.

I hope you are right.

Erm, you haven't yet figured out that despite all evidence to the contrary, Spain is #1 in everything?

It's probably those Americans again. Trying to make Spain look bad because they're jealous of the utopia the Spanish enjoy.