Autónomo or SL? Starting a business in Spain in 2026 — real costs, real timelines

Every week someone sits down in one of our offices with the same excellent question: "Should I start as an autónomo, or set up an SL?" It is the right question to ask first, because the answer shapes your taxes, your liability, your image with clients and your paperwork for years — and because the folk wisdom around it ("an SL always saves tax", "being autónomo is cheaper, full stop") is wrong in both directions.

Here are the actual 2026 numbers on both sides, and the way we reason through the choice with clients in Fuerteventura.

The autónomo route: fast, cheap to enter, taxed as you

Registering as self-employed is a matter of days: census registration with the tax agency, RETA registration with social security, and — here in the Canaries — the IGIC census question that mainland guides forget to mention. From that moment you invoice in your own name and pay two things:

Social security by real income. Since the 2023 reform, your monthly cuota follows your actual net income through a table of brackets — in 2026 running from around €200 a month at the bottom to about €590 at the top, essentially frozen at 2025 levels apart from a small rise in the MEI surcharge. You forecast your bracket, and the system settles the difference when your real figures are known.

The flat rate for new autónomos survives in 2026: €80 a month for the first twelve months. The second discounted year, however, has tightened — it now depends on your first-year net income staying below the minimum wage. Plan on the subsidy being one year, and treat a second as a bonus.

IRPF on profits. Your business profit is your personal income, taxed at progressive rates. At modest profits this is efficient; as profits climb, the marginal rates begin to make the SL conversation for you.

The structural trade-off has nothing to do with cost: an autónomo answers for business debts with personal assets. For a consultant with professional insurance that may be acceptable; for anyone signing leases, hiring staff or carrying stock, it deserves serious pause.

The SL route: a real company, from one euro

The Sociedad Limitada stopped being a €3,006 club some time ago. Under the Crea y Crece law you can incorporate with capital from €1 (with a duty to build reserves until the traditional €3,000 is reached), and through the CIRCE electronic system with standard statutes a company can be operating within days, not months. Realistic setup costs with notary and registry run in the few hundreds of euros; the meaningful cost of an SL is not its birth but its life — accounting, corporate books, annual accounts filed at the registry. Budget for proper bookkeeping from month one, because the obligations exist whether you meet them or not.

The reward, on 2026 numbers, is substantial:

• Micro companies (turnover under €1M) pay corporate tax at 19% on the first €50,000 of profit and 21% on the rest — the phased reduction introduced by the 2024 reform, still falling year by year.
• Small companies (€1–10M) pay 23%, on their way to 20% by 2029; the general rate stays 25%.
• Liability is limited to the company; the business has a balance sheet banks can read, an image some corporate clients simply require, and a structure investors and partners can enter.

The honest counterweights: as administrator you will almost certainly pay the autónomo societario quota anyway — its minimum contribution base jumped 42% in 2026, putting the minimum quota around €448 a month — and money doesn't become yours by sitting in the company: salary, dividends or invoicing, each with its own tax cost. An SL whose profits you fully extract every month saves less than the rate table suggests. This is why the decision is a calculation, never a slogan.

The rule-of-thumb — and the Canary tilt

Stripped to essentials: modest profits, low risk, few contracts → start autónomo. Growing profits you don't fully consume, real liability, staff, partners or corporate clients → the SL earns its keep. The crossover typically appears somewhere in the tens of thousands of euros of sustained annual profit — where exactly depends on how much of the profit you need to live on, which is why we model it per case rather than quote a magic number.

And in the Canary Islands the scales carry extra weights that mainland comparisons miss entirely. In one direction: the REPEP regime can free a small autónomo from charging IGIC at all (turnover up to €30,000). In the other: an SL here can reach the REF toolbox — the RIC reserve that shelters up to 90% of undistributed profit reinvested in the islands, and for qualifying new projects the ZEC and its 4% corporate tax — advantages with no autónomo equivalent. The same business can rationally choose differently in Puerto del Rosario than it would in Madrid.

One more 2026 note whichever door you pick: your invoicing software will need to be VeriFactu-compliant from 2027 — starting compliant is free; migrating later is a project.

Decide once, correctly

Bring us your numbers — expected income, what you need to draw, who you'll sign with, whether you'll hire — and our business advisory team will model both routes with 2026 figures, register whichever you choose, and hand the running of it to accounting and labour so it stays clean. Book a consultation — we reply within one business day.

Common questions

Can I start as autónomo and convert to an SL later?
Yes, and it is the most common path: validate the business as autónomo, incorporate when the numbers justify it. The move needs modest care — contracts, licences and client relationships transfer to the new entity — but it is routine.

I'm a foreigner. Can I set up either without being resident?
An SL can have non-resident shareholders and directors (they need an NIE, and non-EU directors have additional considerations). Working as autónomo requires the right to work in Spain — EU citizens have it automatically; others need the corresponding permit, such as the self-employment visa or other residence routes.

Does an SL protect my house completely?
It limits liability for the company's debts, but not against personal guarantees you sign — and banks routinely ask new SLs for them — nor against liability for serious mismanagement. It is strong protection, not magic armour.

Figures verified in August 2026 (RETA tables, Ley 7/2024 corporate rates, Crea y Crece). Every situation differs — model yours before choosing.