One of the most important boxes to tick when opening a business is it´s physical location. This will unavoidably affect every aspect of your company, from your capacity to do business all the way to your turnover rate. According to a Site Selection survey of corporate real estate executives (October 2018) these are the top 10 factors for business sites selection:
The Canary Islands rank in the first positions when considering features as local tax regime, quality of life, education resources and connectivity.
Connectivity
The Canary Islands offer a robust transportation infrastructure, with 6 international airports that serve over 35 million passengers per year (under normal circumstances). The UK alone enjoys almost 500 weekly direct flights (Germany over 400), making the archipelago a gateway to west Africa, the whole of Europe and the world.
If you are going to base your company somewhere, you have to make that somewhere can provide you consistently with highly qualified resources. The Canaries offer over 1.000 STEM graduates per year, but that´s not all.
The Canary Islands Statistical Institute (ISTAC for its initials in Spanish) stated in 2021 that the archipelago hosts 2 public and 3 private universities, over 20 Official Schools of Languages and 180 Professional Training Centres. In addition, any given year you wouldn´t have any difficulties in finding over 38,000 university students and 40,000 students of professional centres. Not bad, right?
The Canary Islands rank high on this one, as Spain is always in the top positions in any quality of life ranking, like the 2019 edition of the Expats Insider report, where Spain ranks 2nd of 64 countries. Now, take into account that the Canary Islands are one of the most sough-after places to live in Spain. On the same report, 79% of expats claim moving there has made them happier. This, in conjunction with great weather all year round will allow you to tick this box confidently.
The first years of any venture are always extremely volatile, and the amiable fiscal regime in the Canary Islands understands this perfectly. Start-ups need the money invested to grow, not to pay fat tax bills. That´s why the lowest corporate income tax rate in Europe (4%), a general VAT of 7%, heavy R&D deductions of up to 90% of the expenses (with an option to monetize the incentive in cash on hand payed by the government at the end of the year) makes the Canary Islands difficult to surpass in this particular area.