Business Plan

A modern, trustworthy filing service for Spain's Modelo 210 — the annual non-resident income tax that every foreign property owner in Spain must file. The customer is a non-resident landlord or second-home owner (primarily Dutch, German, British) who currently either uses a local Spanish gestor (€250+/year, trusted but old-fashioned, language barriers) or an anonymous online tool like IberianTax (€35–80, cheap but impersonal).

We sit between them: a clean online experience backed by a named, accredited Spanish asesor fiscal who reviews and files every return. Peace of mind, real human in the loop, communication in the customer's language, modern digital flow — without gestor prices.

The customer does not choose us — the recommender does. Most non-resident landlords find their tax filer through:

• The property management or maintenance company that manages their rental
• The agency that handles their letting
• A friend or neighbor who recommended someone

This is a B2B2C business with a consumer-facing brand. The actual go-to-market is building a network of 20–50 property managers, rental agencies, and maintenance companies across Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, Mallorca, and Tenerife who recommend us.

Year 1: one anchor partner (a Spanish property-management agency the founders have a relationship with). Execute one filing season flawlessly, capture testimonials and metrics.

Year 2: Outreach to 30+ additional agencies using Year-1 data. Offer agencies their choice of revenue share (€20–30/filing kickback), white-label option, or free agency-side dashboard for managing all their owners' filing status.

Year 3: Become the default recommendation in 2–3 coastal regions. Word-of-mouth between owners begins to compound.

• Two technical co-founders based in the Netherlands handle product, customer experience, and growth.
• Two Spanish asesores fiscales (registered colaboradores sociales with AEAT) are contracted to review and file every return. They sign the filing — we don't.
• The software does intake, document collection, validation, draft preparation, customer communication, and handoff. The Spaniard reviews each draft in 5–15 minutes and submits to AEAT.
• Always have two partners from day one for continuity (one as primary, one as backup with a small retainer of €200–500/month). January peak is brutal — single point of failure is unacceptable.

• Customer pays: ~€180 per filing (positioned as 25–30% cheaper than a traditional gestor at €250, premium relative to IberianTax at €80).
• Paid to Spanish partner: ~€80 per filing.
• Gross margin to us: ~€100 per filing.
• Optional agency kickback: €20–30 per filing where applicable.
• Net contribution to founders: €70–100 per filing depending on channel.

Pricing must be justified by visible human review — the customer needs to feel the Spanish professional in the loop (named, accredited, signature on filing receipt). Otherwise we look overpriced versus IberianTax.

Phase 1 (build first, 8–12 weeks)

• Consumer-facing intake flow (English first, Dutch added before launch given anchor partner's audience)
• Document upload (IBI receipt, NIE, ownership details)
• Validation layer (NIE format, cadastral value sanity checks)
• Customer dashboard with status tracking
• Internal partner tool for the Spaniard to review pre-filled drafts and submit
• Confirmation flow including AEAT receipt and partner's name/credential visible to customer

Phase 2 (only if Phase 1 traction justifies, Year 2)

• Agency partner portal: bulk view of all owners under one agency, filing status, deadline alerts, bulk reminders, compliance reports for the agency. This is the real long-term moat — agencies who use this won't switch.

Not building

• Marketplace of professionals (not bootstrap-compatible)
• AI receipt OCR / year-round portal (until customers explicitly ask and pre-pay)
• Aggressive deduction engines (legal risk, see below)
• Anything beyond imputed-income and rental-income filings in Year 1 (no capital gains, no back-filing until Phase 2)

Filing model: the Spanish partner files as colaborador social under their own credentials and signature. We are not the filer. This is non-negotiable for liability containment.

Our liability exposure (which is real and not zero)

• Consumer-facing accuracy: Dutch consumer law (Art. 6:193a–j BW on misleading practices, Art. 7:24 BW) limits how aggressively we can disclaim liability for B2C services. T&Cs must clearly state the filing is performed by a named Spanish professional, and that professional's name must appear on the customer's filing receipt.
• Data layer: if our software miscalculates an input that the Spaniard then files, the loss traces back to us. We must build: input validation, customer review/approval step before submission, double-entry confirmation for key numbers.
• Recommender misrepresentation: website must never claim “we file your taxes” — frame as “we help you prepare and connect you with an accredited Spanish asesor fiscal who files your return.”

Required from the Spanish partner

• Active colaborador social status with AEAT (verify certificate, not just claim)
• Active professional indemnity insurance with sufficient cap (review policy, request copy)
• Membership in a recognized professional body (Colegio de Economistas / REAF, Colegio de Gestores Administrativos, or AECE)

Our own protections

• Dutch BV as operating entity (limits founder personal liability if properly capitalized)
• Professional indemnity insurance for the BV (~€1,000–3,000/year for €1–2M coverage)
• T&Cs reviewed by a Dutch lawyer in Year 1 once revenue justifies it (~€1,500–3,000)
• VAT setup: OSS scheme for B2C digital services across EU; reverse-charge on the B2B service from Spanish partner; Dutch accountant to set this up properly from day one (~€500–1,000 one-off)

Spanish partner agreement (critical pre-build)

• Drafted in Spanish by a Spanish lawyer experienced in service agreements (~€800–1,500)
• Must cover: fixed fee per filing (and renegotiation triggers at volume), exclusivity terms, termination clauses, customer data ownership, non-compete on customer relationships, IP ownership

Acknowledged risks that must be monitored:

• July 2025 Audiencia Nacional ruling (SAN 3630/2025): non-EU residents may be entitled to deduct rental expenses, currently under appeal to the Supreme Court. We will not apply this deduction in our standard flow until the Supreme Court confirms — conservative defaults. We may build a separate “claim refund for prior years” product once the legal position is settled, as the 4-year reclaim window is significant.
• European Commission challenge to imputed income tax on personally-used non-resident property: if struck down, half the empty-property filing volume disappears. Cannot be mitigated, but accelerates the case for rental and back-filing products as primary offerings.
• Filing schedule change (already in effect): since tax year 2024, rental income is filed annually (1–20 January) rather than quarterly. Our entire system is designed around the annual model.
• February 2026 short-term rental data declaration: new compliance obligation for STR owners — potential additional product line.

Before writing any production code, the following must be done in order:

1. Co-founder agreement on paper: equity split, roles, time commitment, vesting/cliff, exit and dispute clauses, IP assignment. Dutch lawyer drafted, signed by both founders.
2. Anchor agency conversation: hard number on filings they could route to us, what they'd pay/charge owners, capacity in January, willingness to partner formally. If this is vague, the whole plan is much weaker.
3. Five customer conversations with the anchor agency's existing owners (introduced by the agency): current process, willingness to pay, pain points, deduction frustrations.
4. Two Spanish partner candidates identified and vetted: in-person visits, verify colaborador social status, professional indemnity insurance, capacity at peak, current tooling. Draft partner agreement reviewed.
5. Dutch BV incorporation with appropriate capital, VAT registration, OSS registration for cross-border B2C.
6. Domain set secured (tramita… family across .es + .eu + .nl + .de + .co.uk + .fr at minimum). EU trademark search at euipo.europa.eu before public commitment to brand.

This is a bootstrapped cash-flow business, not a venture-backed startup. No exit assumed.

• Year 1: 100–300 filings via anchor agency. Revenue €18–54k. Net contribution €7–30k. Built nights/weekends; founders not yet full-time.
• Year 2: 300–800 filings as more agencies onboard. Revenue €54–144k. Net contribution €21–80k. One founder potentially full-time.
• Year 3: 800–2,500 filings. Revenue €144–450k. Net contribution €56–250k. Both founders potentially full-time.
• Year 4–5 ceiling: 2,500–5,000 filings. Net contribution €175–500k/year to two founders.

This is a €200–500k/year profit business for two people within 3–4 years if the agency channel works. It is not, and is not intended to be, a venture-scale outcome.

1. Agency channel turns out smaller than the friend claims. Checkable this week — must be confirmed before building.
2. Spanish partner hits capacity in Year 2 and quality drops. Mitigated by having two partners from day one.
3. IberianTax launches a “premium” tier with human review at €120 and squeezes our positioning. The real strategic risk — agency moat must be built before they react.
4. EC ruling kills imputed income tax requirement. Cannot mitigate; must diversify product line into rental, back-filing, capital gains.
5. Spanish tax law changes mid-season. Retain a Spanish tax advisor on small monthly retainer (€500–1,000) for ongoing monitoring and ad-hoc questions.