Paying yourself from your SL in 2026: salary, dividends or both

Every owner-manager of an SL asks it in the first year, usually in December: "how do I actually get the money out?" The company has earned it; the question is which door it leaves through — a salary for running the company, a dividend on the shares, or an invoice from you to your own company — because each door has its own rules in company law, its own tax rate and its own social-security bill, and in 2026 all three moved.

This is the numbers piece. The autónomo-or-SL guide explains when a company is worth having; here we assume you have one, you run it and you own most of it — the Fuerteventura owner-manager we see every week — and we walk the three routes with 2026 figures, then run one example through all of them.

Door one: a salary for running the company

Legally it starts with the statutes. Under article 217 of the Companies Act the office of director is unpaid unless the statutes say otherwise and state the system of pay — a fixed sum, attendance fees, a share of profits. The general meeting then fixes the maximum annual amount, which stands until it is changed; in a company with a board, an executive director also needs a contract approved by two-thirds of the board (article 249), and in an SL any other service relationship between the company and a director needs the meeting's approval (article 220). In a one-person company «the meeting» is you signing a decision — but it must exist on paper.

Why the paperwork matters is tax. What the company pays you as director is employment income in your hands (article 17.2.e of the IRPF law), and for the company it is a deductible expense. For years the tax agency refused that deduction whenever the statutes were silent, calling the salary a «liberality»; the Supreme Court closed the argument in a line of rulings between June 2023 and June 2024 — real, accounted, proven pay for real work is deductible even if the statutes did not provide for it. We still fix the statutes: it costs one notarial deed and removes the discussion.

The withholding is the surprise: director's pay carries a flat 35 % retention — 19 % if the company's turnover in the last closed year was under €100,000 (article 101.2). It is only a prepayment; your final tax follows the ordinary scale, which in the Canaries adds a 9 % to 26 % autonomic scale to the state's 9.5 % to 24.5 %: a marginal rate of 18.5 % on the first euros, 29 % and then 37 % through the middle bands, and 46 % once taxable income passes €60,000 (higher still above €93,000).

Then social security. If you control the company — half the capital, or a third, or a quarter when you also manage it, or half among relatives you live with — you are an autónomo societario in the RETA, whatever your contract says (article 305.2.b of the General Social Security Act). The company pays no employer contributions on your salary; you pay your own quota, and since January 2026 its floor is the general-regime group 7 base of €1,424.40 a month — €448.69 a month at the 31.5 % rate, up 42 % on the €1,000 floor that stood from 2023 to 2025 (you may run 2026 on your old provisional base, but next year's regularisation collects the difference). Above the floor, your bracket follows your real income from the company. A director without control is different: they go into the general regime as an «assimilated» employee, without unemployment cover or the wage-guarantee fund, and the company pays employer contributions on the salary — roughly 25 % plus the accident tariff.

Door two: dividends

A dividend is what is left after corporate tax has been paid, distributed by a decision of the general meeting on approved accounts (article 273), once the legal reserve has taken its 10 % of the year's profit up to a fifth of the capital (article 274); interim dividends are possible during the year on a liquidity statement drawn up by the directors (article 277).

The 2026 corporate rate for a micro company — turnover under €1 million — is 19 % on the first €50,000 of profit and 21 % on the rest, one step down the path that ends at 17 % and 20 % in 2027; companies between €1 and €10 million pay 23 %, the general rate is 25 %, and a genuinely new company pays 15 % in its first two profitable years. The dividend then reaches you as savings income: 19 % up to €6,000, 21 % to €50,000, 23 % to €200,000, 27 % to €300,000 and 30 % above, with a 19 % withholding at source (Modelo 123 each quarter, 193 in January).

Two things dividends do not do. They do not reduce the company's tax: every €100 of profit paid out as dividend leaves €81 or €79 after corporate tax, and the savings scale then takes 19 % to 23 % of that — roughly 34 % to 39 % on the euro that leaves the company, against the 29 % to 46 % a salary euro costs at these income levels. And for an autónomo societario they are not free of social security either: the RETA counts your dividends as income when it sets your bracket for the year (article 308.1.c), so a director on «no salary, dividends only» still pays a quota — and, with no employment income, has nothing to deduct it from.

Door three: invoicing your own company

The third route is to stay an autónomo and bill the company for your work. It is legal, and for a firm of partners with real staff and premises it is often right; for a one-person company whose only «professional» is its owner it is the pattern the tax agency singled out in its 2019 note on interposed companies. Where the company has no real means of its own, the agency treats the arrangement as simulation and taxes the income directly in your hands; where it does have means, it revalues your invoices at market price under the related-party rules — a safe harbour exists for professional firms whose partners take at least 75 % of the result, but it was written for law and accountancy practices, not for a trading company's manager. Add IGIC on every invoice unless you are within the small-business exemption, and the ordinary 15 % professional retention, and the route rarely earns its risk for an owner-manager. We mention it because clients ask; we recommend it seldom.

One example, three routes

Picture a micro SL in Fuerteventura with €60,000 of profit before anything is paid to its only director and shareholder — single, under 65, no other income — who wants all of it this year. The RETA quota is at the minimum base of the bracket the income sets, and the legal reserve is already full. Rounded to the nearest hundred:

• All salary — €60,000 as director's pay. Corporate tax: nil. RETA: the bracket for €4,050–6,000 a month, €6,500 for the year, deducted from the salary. IRPF: €13,400. Money left: €40,000 — a third of the profit gone in tax and contributions.
• All dividends — no salary. Corporate tax €11,600 (19 % on €50,000, 21 % on €10,000), leaving €48,400 to distribute. RETA on the dividends: the €3,620–4,050 bracket, about €6,100, with no salary to deduct it from. Savings tax: €9,000. Money left: €33,400 — 44 % gone.
• Both — €30,000 of salary, the rest as dividend. Corporate tax €5,700 and a €24,300 dividend; RETA €6,500; IRPF €3,400 on the salary and €5,000 on the dividend. Money left: €39,300.

At this size salary wins, and the theoretical optimum — a salary of about €45,000 with a small dividend — beats it by under €300 a year: not worth the second set of paperwork. The picture changes at €120,000 of profit: all salary leaves €72,400, all dividends €68,700, and a salary of €60,000 with a €48,400 dividend leaves €77,900 — about €5,500 more than the payroll-only route. The reason is the marginal rates above: a salary euro costs 37 % until roughly €57,500 of taxable income and 46 % beyond €60,000, while a dividend euro costs 34 % to 39 % all the way — so the rule of thumb for 2026 in the Canaries is a salary up to the top of the 18.5 % bands and dividends for the rest.

And the case where dividends win outright is the one the example excludes: profit you do not need this year. Retained, it has paid its 19 % or 21 % and stays in the company for a machine, a hire, a property or a RIC reserve; drawn as salary, the same euro pays up to 46 % on its way to a savings account. An SL that keeps its profit is cheap; an SL that empties itself every month is not — which is the whole point of the autónomo-or-SL calculation.

Setting it up so it holds

• Statutes and minutes: paid office, the pay system, an annual meeting decision fixing the maximum — and the executive contract if there is a board. Real work, real payroll, real accounting entries: that is what the Supreme Court protected.
• Payroll: monthly pay with the 35 % (or 19 %) retention, Modelo 111 each quarter and 190 in January; the RETA base chosen to match the expected bracket, so that the regularisation the following year returns money rather than demanding it.
• Dividends on a calendar: after the accounts are approved by 30 June, or interim on a liquidity statement; the 19 % retention paid on Modelo 123; the legal reserve checked first.
• A clean line between you and the company: no personal expenses through the company account, no company car or flat without a contract at market value — the second half of that 2019 note, and the most common finding in a small-company inspection.

Where we come in

Our tax and accounting desks in Caleta de Fuste and Costa Calma model the three routes on your real figures, draft the statutory clause and the minutes, and run the payroll and the dividend calendar together with your company's returns. Start with tax advisory or accounting advisory, or book a consultation — we reply within one business day.

Common questions

Can I pay myself a salary if my statutes say the office is unpaid?
You can pay yourself for real work and the company can deduct it, because the Supreme Court has held since 2023 that a real, accounted salary is not a gift merely because the statutes are silent. But an unpaid-office clause invites the argument, so amend the statutes and record the annual maximum in the minutes; the deed is cheap and the discussion disappears.

Does taking dividends instead of a salary avoid the autónomo quota?
No. If you control the company you are in the RETA in any case, with a 2026 floor of €1,424.40 of base — €448.69 a month — and the annual regularisation counts your dividends as income when it sets your bracket. Dividends avoid the withholding on salary, not the social security.

Why is the retention on my director's pay 35 %?
Because the IRPF law fixes a flat 35 % on remuneration for the office of director, or 19 % when the company's turnover in the last closed year was under €100,000. It is a prepayment: your final tax follows the ordinary scale, and the difference is settled in the annual return.

What is the best mix in 2026?
For an owner-manager who needs the money, a salary up to the top of the 18.5 % bands — roughly €57,000 to €60,000 of taxable income in the Canaries — and dividends for the rest; below that level, salary alone. Profit you can leave in the company is better left there at 19 %. Run your own figures before deciding: family, other income and the company's turnover all move the lines.

Facts verified in September 2026 (Companies Act articles 217, 220, 249, 273, 274 and 277; IRPF law articles 17, 19, 20, 57, 63, 66, 76 and 101; Corporate Tax law articles 15, 18, 29 and transitional provision 44 as amended by Law 7/2024; General Social Security Act articles 136, 305 and 308; Order PJC/297/2026 on 2026 contributions; the Canary autonomic scale and minimum under Law 9/2025 and Law 5/2024; Supreme Court rulings 875/2023, 1378/2023, 75/2024, 449/2024 and 1053/2024; the AEAT note of February 2019 on interposed companies). Figures are for a single Canary resident with no other income; yours will differ.