Open a language school in Spain in 8 steps
Go in this order: decide what you'll teach, pick your legal form, register, sort out the premises, then insurance, consumer paperwork, the rules for minors and your budget. The sections below go into the detail.
- 1
Decide who you'll teach
Adults, children, exam prep or companies; in a classroom, online or both. That choice decides your premises, your timetable and whether the rules for minors apply.
- 2
Choose autónomo or SL
Autónomo is quicker and cheaper to start; an SL keeps your own assets apart from the school's. The table below compares them.
- 3
Register with Hacienda and Social Security
Register with Hacienda (that's where you pick your IAE epígrafe) and sign up with Social Security before the first paid lesson. A gestor can do both for you.
- 4
Sort out your premises with the town hall
First check that the premises allow a school, then file the declaración responsable (or apply for a licence if your works need one).
- 5
Get liability insurance
Ask for cover for your premises, your teachers and, if you teach them, children. Have it before the first student walks in.
- 6
Prepare the consumer paperwork
Complaint forms, a notice board with prices and timetables, a written contract with each student and the "no official title" line in your ads.
- 7
Check the rules for minors
A sex offences registry certificate for everyone who teaches children, and a parent's consent for the data of students under 14.
- 8
Do your numbers
Rent, works, furniture, insurance, software and marketing, before you sign a lease.
Before you sign anything, work out your startup budget and go through the full list of legal requirements for a language school.
Do you need approval from the education department?
No. Academies whose courses don't lead to an official title fall under ordinary law, not education law, so the education department doesn't authorise them. Other rules still apply.
Spain's education law (LODE, article 24.1) says private centres whose courses don't lead to an official academic title are subject to ordinary law. The Basque education department, for example, answers "no" when asked whether you need its permission to open an academy.
What you do need is to be clear about it. In Madrid, your ads and your notice board must say that your courses don't lead to an official title, and Andalusia asks for a similar line in every ad. The same law also bars you from using the names reserved for official schools.
Autónomo or SL: which one for a language school?
Start as autónomo if you're opening alone to test the idea. Choose an SL when you have partners, sign a long lease or want your own assets kept apart from the school's debts.
| What changes | Autónomo | SL |
|---|---|---|
| Business debts | You answer with everything you own, now and in the future | Partners don't answer personally for the company's debts |
| Minimum to set up | No minimum capital | 1 € of capital, with extra rules until it reaches 3,000 € |
| Setting up | Register with Hacienda and Social Security | Notary deed and Registro Mercantil, then Hacienda and Social Security |
| Social Security | Cuota de autónomos by income: €205.88 to €607.35 a month in 2026 | If you own at least half of the SL and run it, you pay the cuota de autónomos too |
| Tax on profit | IRPF, at your personal rate | Impuesto sobre Sociedades, paid by the company |
| IAE (business tax) | Exempt: individuals don't pay it | Exempt for the first two years and while turnover stays under 1,000,000 € |
Which form pays less tax depends on your profit. Ask a gestor to run the numbers for both with your own figures before you choose.
When you register, you pick an IAE epígrafe. The list of activities in the liberalisation law includes epígrafe 933.9, "other teaching activities, such as languages", and our IAE guide for teachers explains when another one fits. VAT is a separate question: an academy's lessons are VAT-exempt under article 20.Uno.9º only if it counts as an "authorised private entity", so read our guide to VAT on language lessons before you send your first invoice.
Opening licence or declaración responsable?
For premises up to 750 m², the town hall can't ask for a prior opening licence for a language academy. You file a declaración responsable stating that you meet the rules, instead of waiting for a licence.
The liberalisation law (Ley 12/2012) applies to the activities in its annex in premises up to 750 m², and the annex lists epígrafe 933.9, "other teaching activities, such as languages". For those, the prior licence is replaced by a declaración responsable or a comunicación previa.
Two catches. Works that need a building project still need a licence, and the premises must allow that use under your town's planning rules. Ask the town hall's planning office (or a technician) before you sign the lease, not after.
Complaint forms, notice board and contracts
Your students are consumers, so consumer rules apply from day one: complaint forms, clear prices, a written contract and an invoice for every payment. Each region sets the details.
Madrid's rules for academies are a good example: a notice board where students pass by, with your courses, timetable, full price and how to pay; a line saying complaint forms are available on request; a teaching contract signed with each student; an invoice for every payment; and an attendance certificate if a student asks for one.
Check with your own region's consumer office: Andalusia, for example, has its own decree for centres teaching non-official courses.
Add liability insurance (seguro de responsabilidad civil) before the first lesson. Tell the insurer whether you teach children and how many teachers work with you, so the cover matches what you do.
Teaching children: data and certificates
If children come to your school, two rules matter most: everyone who teaches them needs a clean sex offences registry certificate, and you need a parent's consent to handle the data of students under 14.
Spain's child protection law (LOPIVI, article 57) requires anyone whose job involves regular contact with minors, paid or not, to have no final conviction for sexual offences, proved with a negative certificate from the Registro Central de Delincuentes Sexuales. That covers you and every teacher who joins you.
Under Spain's data protection law (LOPDGDD, article 7), minors can only consent to the use of their data themselves from 14. For younger students, get written consent from a parent or guardian at enrolment. Our legal requirements guide lists the documents.
Franchise or buying an academy that's already running
A franchise gives you a brand and a method in exchange for fees; buying an academy gives you students from day one. Both cost more than starting from zero, and both need a careful read of the contract.
Spanish law (Ley 7/1996, article 62) makes the franchisor give you written information about the company, the business and the network at least 20 days before you sign or pay anything. Use those days to call two or three current franchisees and ask what they really earn.
If you buy an academy, check the lease (can it pass to you?), the student contracts and prepaid courses you'll have to honour, the teachers' contracts and any debts. Ask for the enrolments of the last two years, not just this term's.
For premises up to 750 m², a change of owner doesn't need a new licence, only a comunicación previa to the town hall (Ley 12/2012, article 3.2).
Run the school from the first student
Decide how you'll handle timetables, attendance and payments before the first enrolment, not after the first chaotic month. A shared spreadsheet works for a while; software helps once you have several teachers and groups.
We compared the options, with prices and weak spots, in our language school software guide. SmartCookie Teams (our product) keeps each teacher's timetable, students and payments in one place, at €19 a month per teacher for the first 3, before VAT. It doesn't issue Verifactu invoices or handle SEPA direct debit.
Your academy, organised from day one
With SmartCookie Teams, each teacher has their own timetable and students, and you see attendance and payments for the whole school in one place.