AdrianTO

I am planning on forming a company in Spain. I am wondering about the name I would give the company.

Can I form the company giving it a generic name? Example, XYZ123 SL? But use a different name for the clients? i.e. a "Doing Business As" name which could be something more specific to the type of business. Example XYZ Foods, XYZ Travel or whatever.

Anyone know?

Thanks

Econ

If you have a Gestor then get them to check if you can register the name, I use my economist to look into this stuff. Initially I got knocked back on mine, I then combined 3 letters of my wife's surname with 3 letters of mine, added this new word between the other two and they accepted that.

I have a couple of businesses and use different names for them but then bill under the registered name, I don't see any reason that you can't do this, in fact now that I think of it there are few companies I know that do this.

Hope this helps but honestly, get a gestor or whoever you will use to take care of your paperwork to do this stuff, it will save you a lot of time.

AdrianTO

OK. And this name is not the one you present on your business card or website or billboard etc.. ? This is only used for invoicing and billing?

Econ

Don't have bill boards but yes on cards and the web sites run under different names, some similer and some not. I use the company name with the copyright or as a small text on the webs then on invoicing with the correct CIF for the registered company.

If you call your company MYGREATCOMPANY SL why should there be a problem opening two shops and putting a sign on one of My Flower shop and a sign on the other called My Sweet shop then running them under MYFREATCOMPANY SL? best to check with your Gestor as to what you want to do and he will advise you as to what you can do, but try and find one that understands exactly what you are talking about as I have found in the past I have had to bang my head against a wall to get some Spanish pen pushers to understand what you want to do... as there at times seems to be an element of suspicion.

elgestor

Hello AdrianTO,

The simple answer is that you can call your business more or less what you want subject to restrictions such as using the word bank, royal. Unless of course you are a bank or a royal.

Any communications and invoices however must clearly state your true company name exactly as it appears on your escritura, your CIF and your registered address.

In Spain you have to register for each different activity you intend to carrying out.

If you register a company Carfix S.L. for vehicle repairs with the tax office you can open a garage and trade as Carmenders so long as the conditions mentioned above are met. However if you decide to open a record shop and call it Myrecordshop you would not be able to use your existing company Carfix S.L. to administer this new activity as you would not be registered with the tax office for selling records.

On the other hand you would be able to operate as many vehicle repair outlets as you want as Carfix S.L.

Regards

David

Econ

When I registered my company name we listed several activities we might get involved in on the contract of a simple SC company, although you can alter this at a later date it is simpler just to have them on there at the start, you can add as many activities as you like to this contract even if you do decide not to trade in any of them. You do not need to take out a fiscal licence for each activity, only the ones you actually trade in. E.g. You could list property rentals, record sales, sweet sales, care repairs, construction etc. (Hacienda have listed names for the activities). Then if you open a record shop you take out a fiscal licesnce for selling records, if you then get into construction building houses you take out a fiscal licence for building houses (as long as this activity is listed on the contract or deeds of the company)... so as elgestor mentioned, we just take out a fiscal licence at hacienda for each activity we decided to get involved in but bill under the name of the company.

In Malaga you go to hacienda and at the moment a fiscal licence generally takes about 30 minutes to an hour, actually 10 minutes as the rest of the time is waiting. With each activity you need to have a local or xxx mts declared for it's use. In the past this was a problem for many people because you would need to have a local, now it is simpler, some of the activities my company runs are done by my wife visiting people & companies then at home from her laptop so we just added a couple of mts of our home on each of these fiscal licences (This wasn't possible in the past). The fiscal licence application only costs the price of the form which is something around a euro or so.

It is definitely worth a visit to a gestor with a list of questions as things can differ slightly relative to your area of Spain and to the type of businesses you might intend running.

Good luck

AdrianTO

Thanks for the useful information.

These are the answers I was looking for.

But, it sounds like the administrative tasks required to run a business in Spain can be quite onerous!

Econ

They can be but I guess that is one of the reasons many use a gestor and generally once set up things are fairly routine... unless you start dealing with payments from other countries and zero IVA bills, this can mean extra paperwork which makes me glad I have someone to look after this side.

elgestor

Adrian once you've set yourself up either as autonomo or sociedad limitada it's a matter of keeping your records up to date and paying your monthly social security and quarterly tax and IVA commitments.

There will of course be other aspects that you will need to attend to such as health and safety, insurances, and the day to day operations. But no more than in the UK, the reason it appears more complicated is usually the language barrier. It's hard enough trying to understand legal and accounting terms in English, but in Spanish !!!

Trying to find an English speaking Gestor in your area may not always be the best option. The fact that they speak English is no reference for their professional abilities. Ask around the area where you live, people will usually tell you who's good or not so good.

Best regards

David