General paperwork
NIE, padrón, social security number, bank account. Appointments booked and forms completed rather than explained.
Relocating employees to Spain
Written for the person who has to make this work — usually an HR lead or a founder who has just been told the new hire is in Málaga. Two of the things below are genuine legal risks, not paperwork.
What a relocation package covers
A well-built package widens the talent pool you can hire from, lifts offer acceptance, and gets people productive faster because they are not organising a house move on company time. These are the components.
Temporary housing
Around thirty days is the standard allowance, and it exists so the employee does not sign a five-year-protected lease from photographs.
Long-term housing
Neighbourhood shortlisting against how they actually live, viewings, and a contract read before signature.
Partner support
The spouse or partner arriving without a job is the single biggest predictor of a failed relocation, and the component companies cut first.
Schooling
School search and the full enrolment process. Note that a public or concertado place generally requires padrón registration, which puts it downstream of the paperwork.
The rest
Driving licence exchange, pet registration, utilities, address changes — individually trivial, collectively a fortnight of someone's working time.
Employing someone in Spain without a Spanish entity
This comes up constantly, and there are three answers depending on how permanent the arrangement is.
A foreign company can register directly with the Spanish Social Security as an employer — this is explicitly contemplated for the international telework route, where the foreign company must either register or produce a certificate of applicable legislation under an international coordination instrument. Mechanically it runs through the standard employer inscription forms, though official guidance on the procedure for an employer with no establishment in Spain is thin.
Within the EU coordination framework there is also a mechanism where, if the employer has no place of business in the member state whose legislation applies, employer and employee can agree that the employee fulfils the contribution obligations on the employer's behalf — typically with the employer's share reimbursed through payroll.
The third answer is an employer of record, and it is the one that needs a warning.
Permanent establishment, in plain terms
A permanent establishment means Spain treats your foreign company as having a taxable presence here, so a slice of its profits becomes subject to Spanish taxation, with Spanish filing and accounting obligations attached.
Spanish law defines it two ways: having installations or workplaces of any kind in Spain, continuously or habitually, where the company carries out all or part of its activity; or acting through an agent authorised to contract in the company's name who habitually exercises those powers.
In practice the exposure comes from two places. A home office that is effectively at the company's disposal and used habitually for the business. And — the bigger one — an employee who habitually negotiates or concludes contracts binding the company. A country lead or a salesperson in Málaga carries far more risk than a back-office engineer doing the same job from a different postcode.
The applicable double tax treaty usually narrows the domestic definition and overrides it, so the answer depends on where your company is resident. This is a question for a tax adviser before the first hire, not after the fifth.
Which structure fits
| Situation | Usual answer | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| One remote employee, temporary | Foreign employer registers with Spanish Social Security, or the employee assumes contribution obligations under EU coordination rules | Whether the employee's role creates permanent establishment exposure |
| Two to five people, no office, indefinite | Direct registration as a foreign employer, or a Spanish entity if it is clearly permanent | EOR arrangements — take Spanish advice first |
| A real team with premises | A Spanish entity | Corporate set-up is regulated work; you need a gestoría and probably a lawyer |
| Senior hire who will sign contracts | Take tax advice before the offer | Dependent-agent permanent establishment is the classic trap |
We coordinate with gestores and employment lawyers rather than replacing them, and we do not mark up their fees.
The tax question your employee will ask
Expect it in the first conversation after the offer, and it is worth being ready for, because the answer can be worth more to them than a salary increase.
The impatriate regime — the Beckham Law — lets a new Spanish tax resident be taxed broadly as a non-resident: 24% on employment income up to €600,000, for the year of the move and the five following. It requires that they were not Spanish tax resident in the five preceding tax periods, and explicitly covers employees working remotely and holders of the international telework visa.
The deadline is the part that catches people: it must be applied for within six months of the Social Security registration date. It is not recoverable afterwards. If you are relocating someone, make sure they have taken advice inside that window — several of the relocations we have picked up mid-flight had already lost it.
Employer questions
What does a relocation package cost?
It depends entirely on scope — whether it is paperwork only, or paperwork plus housing, schooling and partner support. We quote per assignment after a short conversation rather than publishing a package price, because the difference between a single engineer and a family of four is not a percentage.
Can you handle just one hire?
Yes, and it is our most common first project. Many companies use us only for incoming hires with no other engagement.
Do you replace our gestoría?
No. Company formation, payroll and tax filings are regulated work. We coordinate the process end to end and make sure nothing falls between the parties, which is where these projects usually fail.
How long before a relocated employee is productive?
The administrative load is roughly two weeks of working time if the employee handles it alone, spread over two months and punctuated by appointments during office hours. That is the cost you are removing.
We are considering Málaga but have not committed. Can you help us decide?
Yes. Salary bands for the roles you need, office costs by area, the talent pool around the university and the Parque Tecnológico, and an honest view of how a move here sells to a candidate — before you commit to anything.
Planning a move into Málaga?
Tell us the headcount, the timing and the budget, and we will come back with a landing package.