Spain Digital Nomad Visa for Founders and Business Owners

The one-year company rule

Spain requires that the company you work for (and own) has been incorporated and operating for at least one year before you file the Digital Nomad Visa application.  This rule exists to prevent people from creating a shell company solely to meet the visa requirements.

You document this with a Certificate of Incorporation (the state document showing when your company was legally formed) apostilled and sworn-translated.  The incorporation date must be at least 12 months before your application filing date.  If your company is younger than a year, you need to wait.

This is the most common blocking issue I encounter with founder applicants.  If you are thinking about moving to Spain in the next year and you own a company incorporated in the last 6–⁠10 months, we should talk now about the timing.

The authorization letter problem — and how much it depends on your stake

Every Digital Nomad Visa application requires an employer authorization letter confirming that the applicant is permitted to work remotely from Spain.  For W‑2 employees, this comes from HR or a manager.  For founders, the question is who has standing to sign it on the company’s side, and that increasingly depends on how much of the company you own.

With a minority stake and other officers on the corporate record, a well-written letter (company letterhead, company address, your name in both the “from” and “to” fields, explicit confirmation of role, salary and authorization to work from Spain) is usually enough.  I draft this letter for every founder client because the phrasing matters.

Documenting income as a founder

W‑2 employees have it easy: pay stubs and a W‑2.  Founders have more options, and more complexity:

• If you pay yourself a W‑2 salary from your company: Use your own pay stubs and W‑2 as the primary income evidence.  This is the cleanest path if your W‑2 salary alone meets the threshold.
• If you take distributions: K‑1 statements, bank statements showing transfers, and corporate tax returns (Form 1120 or 1120-S) documenting the distributions.  The UGE wants to see consistent, documented income, not sporadic large deposits.
• If income is a mix: We document both streams and present a clear picture.  The key is showing consistent monthly income that exceeds the threshold.  Lumpiness is harder to explain than regularity.
• Bank statements: Always required regardless of structure.  The UGE asks for a bank certificate, stamped or signed by the bank, covering the three months before filing with each payment to you marked.  Business account statements can support it, but they don’t replace it.

The income threshold is the same for founders as for everyone else: ~€2,849/month gross for a solo applicant.  What “gross” means for a business owner depends on your structure, which is one of the first things I work through.

If your company’s income is genuinely lumpy, a good quarter followed by a slow one, seasoned savings can bridge a gap that a single month’s bank statement doesn’t tell the whole story about.  This isn’t a way around the threshold, but it can support a borderline file where the underlying business is sound.  See the savings-bridge section of my income requirements guide for how that’s documented.

The 20% Spanish-client rule

The Digital Nomad Visa requires that you work primarily for employers or clients located outside Spain, and specifically that no more than 20% of your income comes from Spanish sources.  For founders, this means no more than 20% of your company’s revenue can come from Spanish clients or customers.

If you run a SaaS with customers in Spain, or a service business with some Spanish clients, this requires analysis.  If Spanish revenue is currently above 20%, it does not necessarily disqualify you, but it creates a documentation and planning question that we need to work through before filing.

Social Security: the founder’s reality

This is where founders face a meaningful difference from W‑2 employees.  W‑2 employees with an SSA Certificate of Coverage remain exempt from Spanish Social Security.  Founders generally don’t have an equivalent exemption and need to register as autónomo with Spain’s self-employed Social Security system (RETA).

One point worth being precise about: the RETA obligation is a Social Security question, not a tax question, and it is triggered by actually living in Spain and exercising your professional activity here, not by crossing the 183-day tax residency threshold, which is a separate calculation entirely.  Treating “becoming a tax resident” as the moment you need to register is a common and costly mistake; the TGSS can assess backdated contributions and surcharges from the date you were actually resident and working, regardless of your tax status that year.

The autónomo contribution starts at around €200/month for low incomes and rises with income.  At €3,000/month net, you pay approximately €440/month.  This is a real ongoing cost that W‑2 employees do not have, and it is one of the factors to weigh in your financial planning before moving.

There are structures that can reduce or defer this obligation, particularly if your U.S. company maintains your formal employment relationship in a way that qualifies for treaty coverage.  This is case-specific and worth discussing with a cross-border tax advisor before you file.  I can make referrals.

Tax structure: LLC vs.  S-corp vs.  C-corp

Your company’s U.S. legal structure does not affect your visa eligibility.  But it significantly affects your Spanish tax situation, particularly under the Beckham Law. The interaction between U.S. pass-through taxation (LLC, S-corp) and Spanish tax treatment is complex.  The same income can be taxed very differently depending on how it flows to you personally.

I am not a tax advisor and I do not give tax advice.  That is a separate engagement with a cross-border tax specialist.  But I flag this in every founder case because the visa filing and the tax structure decisions interact, and making them in the right order matters.  File the visa first, then plan the tax structure for Spain?  Or plan first, then file?  Answer: plan and file simultaneously, with both advisors communicating.

Additional documents for founders

Beyond the standard application documents, founder applications typically add:

• Certificate of Incorporation with state apostille and sworn translation
• Corporate bank statements showing business revenue, as support for the personal bank certificate
• Most recent corporate tax return (Form 1120 or 1120-S)
• Operating Agreement or bylaws confirming ownership structure (for LLCs)
• Client contracts or invoices if income documentation requires it

The timeline for founders

Founder applications typically take 3–⁠5 months, similar to other applicant types.  The difference is that the income documentation is more complex to assemble and explain.  It is not the two-page process of handing over pay stubs.  I build a clear income narrative for every founder file so the UGE sees a coherent picture, not a collection of documents that require interpretation.

The one-year company rule means that if your company is young, the clock is the constraint.  Other than that, founder files move on the same government timeline as everyone else.

Where to start

The free assessment includes founder-specific questions about company age, income type, and Spanish client exposure.  It will tell you immediately whether you are in a waiting period or whether you can file now.  If there are complications, I will identify them in the assessment and explain what can be done.

Sources: Ley 28/2022 (BOE) · UGE. Last updated: 3 October 2026.