Internet Business

Hi, I intend to set up an internet shop. I am resident in Spain and hope to be selling internationally.To enable me to buy goods do I need to be registered as an autonomo. My fear is that it will take a few months to get the shop up and running and that I will need to be paying the SS fee each month with no income. Is there a way around this.

Thanks 

Hi, we run an internet shop in Spain and also buy and sell Internationally. We did consider starting the business as autonomo's but as there were two of us in the partnership we decided in the end to become an SL. You should really speak to a gestor because you need to officially register the business and obtain a business escritura. We also needed a licence to trade and a number which allows us to buy goods from the UK with the right tax concessions. I don't think we started to pay as autonomo's until the month we lauched ... so in other words while we were setting up the company we put the applications in with a view to everything starting at the same time. It took us a good 6 months or so to set up the site etc.

The autonomo vs SL argument is a tricky one and I'm still not sure which is actually the best route.

As an autonomo the SS payments are reduced if you are under a certain age, 35 I think, so that is also worth taking into account.

You can read an article here with more information on SL companies in Spain.

There is another article also about being self employed in Spain which may be of interest too.

In terms of payments, I don't think you need to make any until you actually start trading, but best get that confirmed by a gestor.

Best of luck.

Justin

Thanks for the info. I am going to see a gestor in the morning. I'll let you know how I get on.