Uruguayan accountants · In English

SAS vs sole proprietorship in Uruguay for international services

Two real options for working independently from Uruguay with clients abroad. They differ in more than paperwork, and the right one depends on your activity rather than on which is quicker to open.

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Since 1993Family accounting firm in Uruguay
CCEAUUruguayan public accountants, registrations 61148 and 225636
La Barra + onlineOffice in Maldonado, clients handled remotely

First, the words, because they cause more damage than the rules

Uruguay refers to an individual carrying on business in their own name as an empresa unipersonal. In English this is usually rendered as a sole proprietorship, a sole trader or an individual undertaking. All three are reasonable translations of the label.

The trap

None of those English words carries the Uruguayan legal content with it. A Uruguayan empresa unipersonal is not the local edition of a US LLC, a UK limited company, a German GmbH or any other national figure, and a Uruguayan SAS is not a translation of an LLC or of a foreign corporation either.

They may look similar from the outside and still differ in who the taxpayer is, what is registered, what liability attaches and what has to be filed. The names travel; the legal consequences do not.

What the two actually are here

Operating in your own name. The activity is carried on by you as an individual. There is no second legal person: you and the activity are the same holder of rights and obligations.
SAS. A simplified stock company introduced by Law 19.820 of 2019 and its implementing decree. It is a company with its own legal personality, separate from the people who own it, and it can be formed with a single shareholder.

Read the Uruguayan structures in Uruguayan terms. Translating them into the figure you already know from home is where most of the wrong assumptions begin.

What actually changes between the two

This table is here to show you the kind of decision you are making. It is not a comparison of your tax position, which depends on facts this page does not know.

Point	Operating in your own name	SAS
Who holds the activity	You, as an individual	A company, as a separate legal person
Legal separation	There is no separation between you and the activity	There is a corporate structure distinct from its owners
Ownership	One holder, and it is you	Shares, which may be held by one or more people
Bringing in partners later	Not possible without changing the vehicle	Contemplated by the structure itself
Setting it up	A simpler registration process	A company formation with its own formalities and cost
Income tax framework	Depends on how the activity is characterised and on your own tax position	Follows the regime applicable to companies
Social security	Has to be analysed according to the activity and your situation	Has to be analysed for the company and for the roles within it
Accounting obligations	Lighter in many cases, though not absent	Corporate obligations, which are more demanding
Ongoing administration	Less to maintain month to month	More to maintain, and it does not pause when work is slow
Registration	With the tax office and the social security institution	With the tax office and the social security institution, after formation

The cheapest to open is rarely the question worth asking

Most comparisons online are really comparisons of setup cost and setup time. Those are the two variables that matter least over a five-year horizon, and they are the two that are easiest to publish.

A structure is not something you set up once and forget. It can bring recurring filing, reporting, registration and compliance obligations, and it has to keep making sense as your activity changes. A vehicle that was cheap to open and wrong for the activity produces a second decision later, usually at a worse moment and always at a higher cost.

The question is not which structure has the lowest setup cost. The question is which structure fits your activity and remains defensible throughout the year.

What tips the decision one way or the other

These are the points we go through. Notice that none of them is a revenue figure on its own: a number without an activity behind it does not decide anything.

What the activity actually is

How the work is characterised under Uruguayan rules comes before the vehicle, because it changes which taxes are in play at all.

How you are contracted

Long retainers, a single dominant client, project work or a mix each carry different exposure and different documentation needs.

Whether anyone joins you

If a partner, co-founder or investor is realistic within a few years, that changes which vehicle avoids a second restructuring.

Liability and what is at stake

The size of the contracts and the nature of the risk matter more than the label on the work.

What you can sustain administratively

A structure whose obligations you will not keep up with is a liability, not a protection.

Your own position as a taxpayer

Where you stand personally, in Uruguay and elsewhere, interacts with the structure and cannot be examined after the fact.

If the activity is software, there is an extra layer

Uruguay has specific rules for certain software activities. They are worth understanding properly, and they are frequently misread as a benefit that attaches to anyone who describes themselves as a developer.

Why it belongs in this decision

The rules turn on what the activity is and on requirements that have to be met and evidenced, not on the legal form you pick. Choosing a vehicle in the hope that it produces a tax outcome is the wrong way round: the activity and the requirements come first, and the structure is fitted to them.

Where to read it properly

We keep that analysis on its own page rather than compressing it here, because compressing it is exactly how it gets misunderstood: what actually qualifies under the Uruguayan software regime.

How this comparison usually goes wrong

Choosing the structure before the analysis

The vehicle is the conclusion of the exercise, not its starting point. Deciding first and analysing afterwards means the analysis can only ratify or embarrass the decision.

Assuming a company always pays less

Different structures sit in different regimes. Which one produces a better result in your case is a question about your facts, and anyone answering it before seeing them is guessing.

Reading it as a home-country structure

An SAS is not the Uruguayan version of the entity you used before. Carrying assumptions across borders is how people end up with obligations they never anticipated.

Forgetting the year after the first one

Setup is a single event. Filing, reporting and compliance repeat, and they are what the structure actually costs.

Having the structures compared for your case

When the question has narrowed to which structure, the useful next step is a focused review of your situation rather than a longer article. We look at the facts and set out which vehicle fits, and why the other one does not.

What we look at

the activity you actually perform and how it is characterised
who your clients are, where they are and how you contract with them
how you invoice today and what would change
whether partners, employees or investors are realistic ahead
the taxes and contributions that each option brings with it
the administrative load each option commits you to
the points that must be confirmed under your home country's law

What you get

A reasoned recommendation on which structure fits your case under Uruguayan rules, with the reasoning set out so you can weigh it rather than take it on trust.

Before we start, we confirm in writing what will be analysed, what you receive and what the fee is. Setting the structure up and running it afterwards have their own scope and fee.

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One warning that belongs on this page

A Uruguayan structure can have consequences where you are from, and those consequences are not ours to rule on.

Estudio Zurbriggen is a Uruguayan accounting firm. We analyse and handle the Uruguayan side, and we state precisely which points depend on the law of your own country so that a qualified adviser there can answer them. What we will not do is tell you how a Uruguayan company will be treated under US, UK, Canadian, Russian, German, Australian or any other domestic rules, because that is a question for someone licensed to answer it.

Deciding the Uruguayan structure without that check is one of the few mistakes on this page that is genuinely expensive to unwind.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use an SAS or operate personally?

That depends on the activity, how you contract, what is at stake, whether anyone may join you and your own position as a taxpayer. Both are real options for someone serving clients abroad from Uruguay, and neither is the default. Anyone who answers this before seeing your facts is guessing.

Is a Uruguayan SAS the same as a US LLC?

No. An SAS is a Uruguayan company introduced by Law 19.820, with its own legal personality and its own rules. It may resemble structures you know from elsewhere, but the resemblance does not carry the legal or tax consequences across. The same applies to comparing an empresa unipersonal with a foreign figure.

Does an SAS pay less tax than operating in my own name?

Not as a general rule. The two sit in different frameworks, and which produces a better outcome depends on the activity, the amounts, the deductions in play and your personal situation. Treating one as cheaper by nature is how people choose the wrong vehicle.

Can I start in my own name and move to an SAS later?

Changing vehicle later is possible, and sometimes it is the sensible plan. It is not free, though: it means a second setup, migrating registrations and contracts, and a period where both have to be handled correctly. It is worth deciding deliberately rather than by drift.

Can an SAS have a single shareholder?

Yes. The ability to form the company with one shareholder was one of the changes introduced by the 2019 law, which is part of why the structure became common among independent professionals.

Do both options need to be registered with the tax office and social security?

Carrying out an activity in Uruguay brings registration obligations in both cases, although the process and what each involves differ. The registrations are not something you choose between; what differs is what you are registering.

What does the comparison cost?

The fee depends on the case. We confirm the scope and the fee in writing before any work begins, so you decide with that information in front of you.

Where to go from here

Moving to Uruguay and working remotely

If the structure question turned out to be premature and the situation itself needs framing first.
Setting up in Uruguay as a foreigner

Once the structure is decided and the question becomes how the process runs.
Software and the tax exemption

If the activity is software, where the requirements deserve their own reading.

Sources and scope. This page reflects the general Uruguayan framework for business structures as at August 2026, prepared against the applicable legislation, including Law 19.820 on simplified stock companies and its implementing decree, and the official guidance of the DGI (the Uruguayan tax office), the BPS (the social security institution), IMPO (the official repository of Uruguayan legislation) and Uruguay XXI (the government investment and export promotion agency). It is informational and does not replace advice on a specific case. Which structure fits depends on the facts, the activity, the documentation and the rules in force at the time of the analysis. How a Uruguayan structure is treated under another country's law should be confirmed with an adviser qualified in that jurisdiction.

Professional review

Last reviewed: 23 August 2026
Author: Cr. Matías Zurbriggen, CCEAU 225636 (profile in Spanish)
Reviewer: Cr. Fernando Zurbriggen, CCEAU 61148 (profile in Spanish)
Credentials: Both are Uruguayan public accountants registered with the CCEAU, the national professional body. The review is cross-checked: the partner who did not write the page is the one who reviews it.

Next step

Compare the structures against your case, not against an article

If you already know you will operate independently from Uruguay, the remaining decision is which vehicle carries the activity. That one is worth getting right the first time.

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