Ending a Business in Spain

We have had to come back to the UK because of the economic situation.  It is so hard in Spain.  We have a lot of business experience and set up a Spanish SL which was successful for the first 12 months.  This was a retail shop and as people returned to the UK, the trade was just too low.  We kept the business going, and used up all our own savings.   This was a bad error, but we kept telling ourselves that trade would pick up again.  We did everything properly, no debts but we have been trying to find out how to shut down the Company.  Our Accountant has also moved on and he dealt with all the Company affairs.  Does anyone have any ideas that do not cost any money - as our experience has left us bankrupt.  We have a nice villa in spain which has no water, despite being ripped off over by our builder by thousands of euros - basically we can never sell it.  We are on low wage jobs in the UK and rented property. Any ideas would be appericiated.

I am sorry to hear that things didn't work out for you.

My understanding is that closing a company is difficult and will incur costs.  Some of my friends are still trying to do it after more than 2 years and they keep get told that they have to pay a few thousand towards stuff they don't even know about.

Anyway, there is another option in Spain which is where you can officially suspend trading on an SL, in other words you put the company in "sleep" mode.  I'm not exactly sure how it's done but it is possible.  Then all you need to do is once a year submit a form to show zero earnings.  I think it's difinitely the cheapest and easiest option for you.

Maybe Maria, the lawyer on the forum here, can give you some pointers as to how to go about it.

Best of luck with it.

Justin