Who should handle accounting, tax, payroll and compliance after Spanish incorporation?
After Spanish incorporation, use a team with Spanish accounting, tax and employment capability, and agree how its work connects to HQ. If your finance team can maintain usable Spanish books, retain bookkeeping and appoint local tax and employment support. If nobody can maintain those books, include bookkeeping and annual accounts in the service you buy. Payroll-only support fits when the wider company obligations already have owners. The decision turns on what your team can reliably deliver before the first filing or payroll, with management retaining approvals and statutory responsibilities.
This guide covers an ordinary registered Spanish limited company and direct employment, with tax examples under the common state regime. Foral regimes, special territories, regulated activities and directors’ own employment or tax positions need separate assessment.
In this guide:
- What did the formation engagement cover?
- Which operating model fits your finance team?
- Can HQ keep the Spanish accounting?
- What should the Spanish tax and payroll engagement cover?
- Who handles annual accounts and corporate compliance?
- How can you compare proposals before appointing a provider?
- Where does activation end and recurring work begin?
- Agree the operating scope for your new Spanish company
What did the formation engagement cover?
Your formation provider may offer ongoing accounting and compliance, or it may have been appointed for a defined incorporation project. The signed engagement and delivery file establish that boundary. A completed incorporation does not tell you whether anyone has accepted the next tax return or first payroll.
Compare what was commissioned with what was delivered: the deed and registration details, tax registrations, any powers and electronic access arrangements, and confirmations for filings within the formation scope. Give the incoming operating adviser the actual dates and the planned first transactions. Ask them to separate completed work from pending work and missing evidence. Missing evidence warrants investigation; it does not establish that a filing was missed.
The formation firm can remain your corporate contact while another provider runs recurring tax, accounting and employment work. Where one firm does both, agree the point at which its recurring engagement starts. The same handover questions apply inside a single firm.
For the sequence of practical actions, the first 90 days of a Spanish subsidiary sets out the wider launch checklist. Here, the decision is which of those functions you are buying and which HQ will perform.
Which operating model fits your finance team?
Choose the model by the work HQ can sustain, including coordination. A group finance system helps only if someone maintains the underlying Spanish records and resolves local questions on time.
| Model | When it fits | What HQ still needs to provide | Scope to settle before appointment |
|---|---|---|---|
| HQ bookkeeping with Spanish tax and employment support | A finance team can maintain the books and supply usable records | Accounting capacity, timely inputs and approvals | Spanish reporting adjustments, access, annual accounts preparation and who resolves discrepancies |
| Separate accounting, tax and payroll providers | HQ has the capacity to coordinate specialist firms | A finance lead who can reconcile outputs and settle handover questions | Payroll-to-ledger reconciliation, notice monitoring and the year-end handover |
| Integrated outsourced support, including bookkeeping | The new entity has no finance function able to maintain its records | Source documents, business decisions, approvals and funding | Bookkeeping, annual accounts, tax, employment and administrative custody, each expressly included |
| An internal finance hire with specialist support | Daily finance work justifies a role inside the business | Recruitment, supervision and cover for absence | The employee’s actual Spanish expertise and which specialist matters remain external |
An integrated firm reduces the number of handovers HQ must coordinate. It still needs a clear engagement and competent people for each function. Separate providers can work well when an internal finance lead has time to join their work together. Without that capacity, coordination becomes an unbudgeted job for the parent.
A firm’s description as a gestoría, accountant or corporate-services provider is insufficient to compare these arrangements. Ask what its engagement includes and who answers the technical questions your operation creates. There is no useful universal headcount at which one model becomes the right choice.
Can HQ keep the Spanish accounting?
Yes, provided the arrangement produces the required Spanish accounting records and supports the company’s obligations. The Commercial Code permits accounting by the business itself or duly authorised others, while preserving the business’s responsibility. It does not make an external bookkeeping engagement compulsory. Commercial Code, Article 25.
Before choosing this model, agree which ledger is authoritative and how its entries become the Spanish accounts and the parent’s reporting pack. Set the close timetable, supporting-document access and responsibility for local adjustments. Read-only access helps the adviser review the numbers; someone must still make and approve corrections in the accounting system.
The practical test is whether HQ can explain a balance all the way back to its supporting transactions. Capital contributions, formation costs and parent funding may already need recording before the first sale. Keeping a group reporting pack does not, by itself, establish that the Spanish records underneath it are complete.
Consider an illustrative subsidiary whose parent wants to keep its existing ERP. If HQ records the invoices and bank movements, reconciles balances and supplies the supporting detail before the filing cutoff, local tax support can work from that information. If HQ supplies only a trial balance and nobody can explain the parent charges, further accounting work remains. That work needs a person and a fee allocation, even though the group already owns accounting software.
What should the Spanish tax and payroll engagement cover?
Tax support needs the transaction details and the official notices
Ask the tax adviser to establish the company’s actual filing profile and explain how the proposed business activity affects it. A useful engagement says which returns will be prepared, what information is required and how upcoming payments reach treasury in time for approval.
The first customer contract, a supplier invoice or a proposed charge from the parent gives the adviser something concrete to assess. Cross-border or specialist issues may need a separate assignment. A recurring filing service should explain how such questions are identified and referred.
Waiting for revenue is an unreliable way to decide when support should start. AEAT confirms that a company registered in the Commercial Registry can be required to file corporate income tax for its registration year even if it has not begun activity. VAT and withholding returns need their own applicability checks. AEAT guidance on inactive companies.
Electronic notices need an explicit service scope. Spanish legal persons must interact electronically with public administrations. Where electronic notification is compulsory or expressly chosen, an unopened notice is deemed rejected after ten calendar days have elapsed from its availability. Failure to receive the separate alert does not invalidate notification. Law 39/2015, Articles 14, 41 and 43.
Agree who monitors the relevant official channels, including DEHú and agency portals as applicable, who interprets the notice and who obtains a decision from management. Confirm the actual powers and access: AEAT’s representation procedure requires the authorised procedures to be specified. A successful tax submission should not be treated as proof of authority for every other action. AEAT electronic representation procedure.
Payroll needs employment preparation before the first run
Bring the payroll and employment contact into the first-hire decision before work begins. A first-time employer must register before the employment activity starts; the employee’s registration, or alta, must also precede the start of work. TGSS employer registration and employee registration timing.
Separate the work of reviewing employment terms from calculating monthly pay. The agreement should identify who receives employee changes, processes the payroll and handles the agreed registrations and filings. HQ supplies the information, approves the run and arranges funding; finance reconciles the resulting entries and payments.
Workplace implementation also needs coverage. Occupational risk prevention remains an employer duty when specialist services assist. Producing a payslip does not implement preventive measures for the actual job. Law 31/1995, Article 14. The guide to hiring your first employee in Spain explains the wider preparation around the start date.
Who handles annual accounts and corporate compliance?
Name the preparer, the corporate decision-makers and the filing contact separately. A provider can prepare the documents and assist with submission. Directors retain the duty to formulate the annual accounts, and shareholders approve them. The ordinary meeting falls within the first six months of the financial year; the accounts deposit follows within one month of approval. Companies Act, Articles 164, 253, 272 and 279.
Ask whether the proposal covers annual accounts preparation and deposit, statutory books and the documents needed for approval. Also identify who maintains corporate records and who handles changes such as a director appointment. A bookkeeping fee does not establish that every corporate procedure is included.
Define what “compliance” means in the engagement. Ordinary tax, employment and corporate administration can be coordinated, while sector permissions, data protection, immigration or a structural transaction may need separate expertise. The operating provider should explain the referral boundary so HQ knows where another appointment is required.
How can you compare proposals before appointing a provider?
Ask each candidate to explain how the first real operating cycle would work using your expected transactions. A service list becomes easier to evaluate when it shows the information you supply, the output you receive and the work left with HQ.
| Workstream | Output to agree | Responsibility that must be resolved |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting | Reconciled ledger and the agreed reporting pack | Who posts corrections and resolves differences with HQ? |
| Tax | Agreed returns and submission receipts | Who approves the position and arranges any payment? |
| Payroll | Approved payroll, agreed filings and accounting entries | Who supplies changes, releases funds and reconciles the entries? |
| Official notices | Access, review and escalation records | Who covers absence and approves the response? |
| Annual accounts | Preparation documents and deposit follow-up | Who obtains directors’ signatures and shareholder approval? |
This is a suggested comparison framework, not an exhaustive legal checklist. Submission evidence and payment evidence answer different questions. For annual accounts, agree how any Registry defects will be followed through to completion.
Then compare fees against the same division of work. Identify whether annual work sits inside the recurring fee, whether reporting means a standard English summary or work inside the group ERP, and which events trigger a separate quotation. A lower fee leaves a different operating cost when HQ must reconstruct records or coordinate several firms every month.
Ask how records and access will be returned if the relationship ends, and who covers the main contact’s absence. These terms affect whether the subsidiary can keep operating when people or providers change.
Where does activation end and recurring work begin?
Agree the starting position before treating the company as an ordinary recurring account. The incoming team needs to establish what formation completed, what has happened since and which deadline comes next. If trading or hiring has already started, give it the actual dates.
Activation establishes the agreed operating arrangements. Historic catch-up corrects earlier work where a review establishes that correction is needed. They require different scopes. A retainer start date should identify the first accounting period, payroll and filings covered, including any annual work relating to a period before the handover.
Evolutia’s recurring scopes reflect the bookkeeping decision:
| Scope | Appropriate starting position | Boundary to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Payroll | Accounting and wider company obligations are covered elsewhere | Payroll, ordinary employee lifecycle work and standard contracts; no automatic bookkeeping or broad tax and administrative-custody scope |
| Tax & Employment | HQ maintains the books and gives read-only access to the numbers | Defined tax and employment work, administrative custody and basic parent reporting; excludes bookkeeping |
| Full Subsidiary | No local finance function maintains the records | Tax & Employment plus bookkeeping and annual accounts |
Working inside the group ERP is separately scoped from basic parent reporting. Inherited catch-up, first-time statutory implementation and specialist projects also need their own agreement. Evolutia’s support for newly formed Spanish companies provides the service context for that conversation.
Agree the operating scope for your new Spanish company
Share your incorporation and registration dates, planned trading or hiring dates, what the formation provider delivered and who can maintain the books. Discuss activation and ongoing support for your new Spanish company so we can identify the appropriate division of work with HQ and whether earlier periods need separate review.
Post-Formation Activation is paid implementation work with an agreed scope. Any catch-up is quoted separately, and chargeable work starts only after you accept the written price. The recurring agreement should leave you able to identify what the Spanish team will deliver and what your own team must still do.