VAT compliance for non-resident companies
Spanish VAT registration of a foreign company involves registering the company with the Spanish Tax Office (Agencia Tributaria), and obtaining a Spanish tax code (NIF).
Documentation required
It is necessary to supply the following documents.
- A certificate produced by the Company Registry in the country where your company was incorporated. This document should state the registered address of the company, and a list of directors.
- A Power of Attorney document, the draft provided by us, to be signed by your company director before a Notary. This allows us to obtain your Spanish tax code (NIF) on your behalf and request your VAT registration with the Tax Office.
All documents should be legalised in your country with the Hague Apostille and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator if necessary. We will provide the Power of Attorney documents in both Spanish and English so in the event that you can find a local Spanish-speaking Notary, there will be no translation necessary for these.
We can also provide a sworn Spanish translation service at this end for a reasonable charge. We offer this service for several source languages including English and French.
Our charges
Our current charge for the VAT registration of your company is 350 Euros.
This includes the following:
- Drawing up the draft Power of Attorney and tax representation documents;
- Obtaining a tax code (NIF) for your company;
- Obtaining a personal Spanish tax code (NIF) for the non-resident Spanish director;
- Registering your company’s business activity with the Spanish Tax Office (Form 036).
Timescale
On receipt of the above documentation from you, we will normally obtain your Spanish tax number within approximately two weeks..
When we receive your go-ahead, we will invoice you for a payment on account of 175 Euros to proceed.
Digital Certificates
Once your company is registered for VAT in Spain, you might consider also obtaining a Spanish Digital Certificate. It is a actually compulsary but is widely ignored because up to recently, it has been been extremely difficult to obtain unless the company director can physically travel to Spain.
Having a Digital Certificate has certain advantages such as:
- Being able to receive notificacions from the Spanish Tax Office. All Tax Office correspondence is sent electronically directly to the foreign company and not to us, their registered representatives. So without a Digital Certificate, important communications will be missed.
- The possibility of applying for further registrations such as VIES, EORI and Social Security (to hire Spain-based employees).
We now have a licence to issue Spanish Digital Certificates directly, using videoconferencing to verify the company director’s identity, so no travel to Spain is required.
Our current charge to obtain and issue your company’s Digital Certificate varies between approximately 100 Euros for a 2 year certificate and 150 Euros for a 5 year certificate.
One Stop shop
If you would like to consolidate your VAT on sales in other EU countries into your Spanish VAT declaration, know as One Stop Stop, then this is possible. We can register your company for One Stop Shop in Spain and our current charge for this is 150 Euros, within approximately 10 days after your Spanish tax registration is complete.
Ongoing VAT compliance
If after registration you require our services to prepare and present your quarterly and annual Spanish VAT declarations, then we will also be happy to assist. Our current charge per quarter for VAT compliance is 179 Euros, on the assumption that you send us your VAT data quarterly in the attached spreadsheet format.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@europeaccountants.com or to visit our website www.spainaccountants.com .