Spain

Ease of Doing Business in

Spain

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Spain. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region OECD high income
Income Category High income
Population 46,235,000
GNI Per Capita (US$) 30,990
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
44 42 down -2

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
72.7 72.5 down 0.2
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 136 134 up -2
Dealing with Construction Permits 38 33 up -5
Getting Electricity 70 68 up -2
Registering Property 57 56 up -1
Getting Credit 53 52 up -1
Protecting Investors 100 98 up -2
Paying Taxes 34 36 up 2
Trading Across Borders 39 42 up 3
Enforcing Contracts 64 64 No change
Resolving Insolvency 20 21 up 1

Economy Profile

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Starting a Business

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The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 136 DB 2012 Rank 134 Change in Rank down-2
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 77.0 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 77.0 Improvement in DTF** (% points) 0.0
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 0.109,405
Indicator Spain OECD high income OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
10 -- 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
28 -- 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
4.7 -- 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
13.2 -- 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Obtain a certification of uniqueness of proposed company name (certificación negativa de la denominación social) from the Mercantile Register 3 days EUR 15.95 (certificate) + EUR 3 (stamps)
2 Open a bank account for the company; deposit capital in the bank and obtain a deposit certificate 1 day no charge
3 Grant a public deed of incorporation before a public notary 1 day approximately €500, depends on the amount of the share capital and complexity of the operation.
4 Submit Declaración Censal de Inicio de Actividad and obtain the Tax Identification Number (Numero de Identificación Fiscal, NIF) from the Delegación Provincial de la Agencia Estatal de la Administración Tributaria 1 day no charge
5 Obtain a tax declaration of exemption from the Dirección General de Tributos - Consejería Hacienda Comunidad Madrid 1 day no charge
6 File the public deed of incorporation of the company for its registration with the Mercantile Registry. 6 days EUR 155
7 Legalize company books 15 days approximately EUR 25 to purchase the books (2 books) + EUR 21.49 to legalize
* 8 Submit a notification of start of operations (declaración responsable) to the municipality. 7 days (simultaneous with procedure 6) EUR 350
* 9 File for social security and affiliate all workers with the local general treasury of social security (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social) 1 day (simultaneous with procedure 7) no charge
10 Notify the Delegación Provincial de la Consejería de Trabajo e Industria 1 day no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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