Among the different legal company forms recognised by the applicable legislation, the Public Limited Company (Sociedad Anónima) and the Limited Company (Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada) formats are the most common choices in the local business environment. We would like to highlight the following aspects in relation to the two above-mentioned formats:
 | Public Limited Companies and Limited Companies are the most attractive formats for investors, given that each shareholder is solely and exclusively responsible up to the limit corresponding to his/her investment.
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| Public Limited Companies and Limited Companies require a minimum start-up capital.
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| Limited Companies may not issue bonds.
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| The repatriation of capital, profits and asset gains are conditioned solely by the prior compliance with the formalities arising from the applicable tax legislation.
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| There is neither a minimum nor a maximum limit to the number of partners or shareholders that may participate in Public Limited Companies and Limited Companies.
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| Founding partners may be private individuals or legal entities, residents or non-residents.
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| Members of the Administration bodies of Public Limited Companies may not hold their posts for more than 5 years. Each post is renewable for maximum periods of an identical duration. There is no time limit associated to the duration of such posts in relation to Limited Companies.
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| The internal life of a company is governed by its Articles of Association (Estatutos Sociales), which include the company's basic identification data -company name, registered offices, capital, numeration of shares or stocks, activity, closure date’ of accountancy year, etc.
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| Public Limited Companies and Limited Companies are subject to the same tax legislation. Certain tax advantages are available to business collaboration companies (see section).
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In Spain, legal entities operating as companies are subject to Commercial Code 19/1989 of 25 July (Código de Comercio, la Ley 19/1989, de 25 de julio) partially reformed and adapted to EEC directives. This reform, which introduced significant modifications to the Spanish legislation in order to adapt it to Community regulations, is contemplated in the Royal Decree 1564/1989 (Real Decreto Legislativo 1564/1989) of 22 December, which in turn contains the Revised Text of the Public Limited Companies Act, Law 2/1995 of 23 March pertaining to Public Limited Companies, Law 19/2005 of 14 November on Public Limited Companies, and the Mercantile Register, Regulation RD 1784/1996 (Texto Refundido de la Ley de Sociedades Anónimas la Ley 2/1995, de 23 de marzo, de Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada la Ley 19/2005, de 14 de noviembre, sobre la Sociedad Anónima Europea domiciliada en España, y el Reglamento del Registro Mercantil, RD 1784/1996 de 19 de julio).
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