INVEST IN SPAIN and Garrigues present the latest developments in the 2011 Guide to Business in Spain

28 / 06 / 2011

The new Corporate Enterprises Law and the Labor Reform are among the new features of the Guide, which takes a look at the main corporate/commercial, tax, labor and incentives and subsidies-related initiatives

INVEST IN SPAIN and the law firm GARRIGUES have unveiled the 2011 Guide to Business in Spain, a key tool for providing an insight into the Spanish business climate for foreign investors setting out on a project in the country or looking to expand a business already up and running. The Managing Director of INVEST IN SPAIN, María Paz Ramos, and Garrigues Chairman Antonio Garrigues participated in the launch event.

During her speech, María Paz Ramos pointed to the success of the Guide to Business in Spain as an information resource. “Here at INVEST IN SPAIN, we take particular pride in the usefulness of this service, which seeks to assist foreign companies with the start-up of new projects. Last year’s edition, the 2010 Guide, was consulted by over 16,000 potential investors, which testifies to the significant current demand for quality information”.

For his part, Antonio Garrigues stressed that “we must never forget that a guide such as this serves a policy to attract foreign savings, more important than ever before, above all since there is not one country in the entire world that is not striving to attract foreign capital".

The 2011 Guide to Business in Spain is a practical and comprehensive tool offering foreign companies all of the information required to develop an investment project in the country: how to set up for business, the tax system, aid and subsidies for investing in Spain, the labor and social security legislation, industrial and intellectual property, the Spanish e-commerce-related legal framework and tax implications, as well as useful business addresses. The Guide also contains an introductory chapter describing the country profile and its principal economic indicators.

New features in 2011

The 2011 Guide to Business in Spain runs the rule over the leading corporate/commercial legislative developments, a noteworthy example of which is the Corporate Enterprises Law, regulating the various legal definitions of corporate enterprises provided for in Spanish legislation. It also takes a look at the new developments brought about by Royal Decree-Law 13/2010 in tax and labor terms in a bid to boost investment and create jobs, setting in place a raft of measures aimed at expediting the formation of limited liability companies by telematic means.

On the tax front, the Guide includes the main initiatives in this area, such as the general corporate transactions tax exemption for capital increase transactions, or the extension until 2015 of the regime governing accelerated depreciation for certain asset acquisitions. In terms of international taxation, the Guide details the active role played by the Spanish tax authorities on the signing of new tax treaties with various neighboring economies.

The Guide to Business also includes the latest public aid and subsidies on offer, notable examples including those relating to the Central Government Innovation Strategy (e2I), constituting the new innovation-related framework set in place by the government in order to promote a change to the productive model; the public initiatives to support electrical mobility in urban areas (Project MOVELE); the new lines of preferred financing for SMEs promoted by the National Innovation Agency (ENISA); as well as the creation of the Business Internationalization Fund (FIEM).

In the area of labor and employment, the Guide describes the Labor Reform approved under Law 35/2007, which set the goal of establishing measures aimed at reducing unemployment and bolstering the competitiveness and productivity of the Spanish economy.