The FNRE policy allows you to employee Spanish nationals, in Spain, without establishing a legal business entity in the country. It typically only takes around 5 weeks to set up and there is little administration involved. Your options for commercial activities will be seriously limited, though.   A FNRE company must abide by labour laws and pay social security taxes as standard. However, FNREs are not liable for corporate tax and do not need to file financial returns with the Spanish authorities. Status as an FNRE is only available to SMEs that hire a small number of employees – usually no more than 5.