sjrw

We haven't registered one way or the other yet, as we want to know what the best format is for setting up a business in which we both do the work.

Is it best to set it up as autonomo or as a partnership, or even s.l.

We have been reading all the posts on pensions and on SS and it's now getting somewhat confusing. As Wendy is a little bit older, is it better to have it in her name and get her to be the main contributor, as it seems that when one of a couple reaches pensionable age the other half qualifies as well.

Is it a good idea to continue paying NI contributions and what class of contributions?

What we want is to be totally legal, decent, honest and truthful, but still be able to get the most out from what we put in, and the sooner the better. As we are not full time in Spain yet (very soon) we have not seen a gestor. I know this is what everyone is going to suggest, but before that we would really like to hear what others have done. We have to work, but luckily we actually WANT to work. We are not moving to Spain for an easy life, as such a thing only exists in fairy tales and in "Living in the Sun" - but as far as we are concerned it is better to keep your head up and be poor in the sun than poor in the rain.

All replies will be read and taken notice of.

gallerie9

our sentiments exactly, we would like similar advice to

spain

it is difficult because everyones circumstances are different

it will depend on how much you earn, if you have employees, an office and loads of other stuff and there are various tax systems

there is no substitute for proper advice, my husband was in partnership and set up as an S.C but now he is on his own so back to autonimo - he had 2 choices of system "directo" or another I cant even remember

how I understand it, the other you have to pay a minimum of 3000€ per year, if you dont then you have to make up the difference out of your own pocket

with "directo" you just basically pay as you go with IVA (no minimum amount) then tax on your earnings on top

perhaps there is someone out there who can shed some more light on the differences ?

Solarwhizz

I dont understand this,, but here is what I did witht he costs

I am in a partnership and we have a registered company S.L.

The cost for setting up the business was as follows,

750€ for setting up the articles of partnership and registering with equivalent of companies house in Madrid, (included notarised partnership document)

900€ insurance for company liability, employee liability, and 3rd party damages up to 5 mill€

We pay the equivalent of a chartered accountant 95€ per month on average, for this he looks after all our tax affairs, and advises us on what we need to do or dont do ( he is a great believer in Bolsillos)

We pay Social security each month, of 249€ each,

IVA is done by our accountant quarterly based on our receipts and invoices,

We as yet have not paid any income tax, on earnings as we " dont have any"

But we are advised to take earnings as the max is 20% vs company tax on profits is higher at 25% ( I dont know yet if there are different taxes for different levels of income/profit) but we work hard a keeping this within "control"

The only bugbear so far ( two years in). is the obsession the assesoria has with knowing what every transaction on our bank account is for ,, ins and outs!!,, you need to keep a very close record of this,

and thats my experience so far.

el sid

Can you tell me where you´re based solarwhiz, as we are in exactly the same situation as you, i.e. we are partners and have a registered S.L. company but are accountants fees are MUCH higher.

Your comments about the bank account are very interesting.