French Desk: your French-speaking contact in Spain

Yes. David Bua, partner at Euroaccounts, is trilingual in Spanish, English and French and personally handles French Desk files. Conversations, reports and reporting can all be in French from start to finish. Documents addressed to the Spanish authorities are, naturally, in Spanish, and we explain them to you.

A subsidiary is a Spanish company with its own legal personality: the parent company’s liability is in principle limited to what it contributes. A branch is not a separate company but an extension of the French parent, which answers for its activity. Both are taxed in Spain on the activity carried out here, but reporting obligations differ, as does how Spanish customers and banks perceive you, and the implications when profits are distributed. The choice depends on expected volume, time horizon and the group’s risk appetite, and it is exactly what we analyse in the initial report.

It depends on the application of the treaty between Spain and France for the avoidance of double taxation, signed in Madrid on 10 October 1995 and published in the Spanish Official Gazette on 12 June 1997, and on Spanish and European rules applicable to parent-subsidiary distributions. The treatment is not automatic: conditions must be met and the parent company’s tax residence evidenced in the right form and within the deadline. This is a point where money is lost because the documentation was not prepared before the distribution.

A Spanish company’s accounts must be kept under the Spanish Plan General de Contabilidad and meet the Spanish tax calendar. In practice what works is a split: we handle accounting and tax in Spain, and your French adviser receives from us the information in the format needed to consolidate. We do not compete with them, we work with them.

Selling in Spain without a local structure is possible, but it has limits. Depending on how the activity is organised, it can end up creating a permanent establishment in Spain without your having decided to, with the tax obligations that entails and the added risk of having failed to meet them for months. There may also be VAT obligations and the need for a fiscal representative. It is better settled before invoicing starts, not after.

It is a special Spanish tax regime, popularly known as the Beckham law, allowing certain people who move their residence to Spain to be taxed under a different regime from the general one for a limited period. It is subject to access conditions and is not advantageous in every case: it depends on income level, the type of link with the company and the person’s assets. It must be applied for within a set period from the start of the activity, so it is a decision to be taken before the move.

Yes. Transactions between a Spanish subsidiary and its group are related-party transactions and must be valued at arm’s length and documented. Above certain thresholds there is also an obligation to report them to the authorities. It is a usual audit focus area, and a newly incorporated subsidiary can end up invoicing services with the group without documentary support.

Yes. The French Desk works in French with companies from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and French-speaking Canada. The approach is the same, but each country has its own double tax treaty with Spain and its own particularities, and the analysis is done on whichever applies to your case.