Uruguayan accountants · In English
SAS vs sole proprietorship in Uruguay: which one fits your case
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.
Two real options for working from Uruguay with clients abroad. Your activity decides.
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- CCEAU 61148 · 225636CCEAU-registered public accountants
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Side by side
What actually changes between the two.
This shows 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. There is no second legal person. | A company with its own legal personality, separate from its owners. |
| Bringing in partners later | Not possible without changing the vehicle. | Contemplated by the structure itself: shares, one or more holders. |
| Setting it up | A simpler registration with the tax office and social security. | A company formation with its own formalities and cost, then the registrations. |
| Tax and social security | Depend on how the activity is characterised and on your own position. | Follow the regime for companies, and the roles within it are analysed separately. |
| Ongoing administration | Lighter in many cases, though not absent. | Corporate obligations, more demanding, and they do not pause when work is slow. |
Read the Uruguayan structures in Uruguayan terms. An SAS is not the local edition of a US LLC or a UK limited company, and an empresa unipersonal is not a translation of any foreign figure. The names travel; the legal consequences do not.
What tips the decision
Six things we look at, and none is a revenue figure.
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 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.
How this comparison usually goes wrong
The cheapest to open is rarely the question worth asking. The question is which structure fits your activity and remains defensible throughout the year.
Setup is a single event.Filing, reporting and compliance repeat, and they are what the structure actually costs. A vehicle that was cheap to open and wrong for the activity produces a second decision later, at a worse moment and a higher cost.
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Choosing the structure before the analysis
The vehicle is the conclusion of the exercise, not its starting point.
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Assuming a company always pays less
Different structures sit in different regimes. Anyone answering before seeing your facts is guessing.
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Reading it as a home-country structure
An SAS is not the Uruguayan version of the entity you used before.
Questions we hear first
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.
Where to go from here
What is your next question?
- Moving to Uruguay and working remotelyIf the structure question turned out to be premature and the situation needs framing first.
- Setting up in Uruguay as a foreignerOnce the structure is decided and the question becomes how the process runs.
- Software and the tax exemptionIf the activity is software, where the requirements deserve their own reading.
- Forming an SASIf you have chosen the SAS: how we form it, with a public notary and an accountant in one process.
If the company will be the Uruguayan arm of a business abroad, see our accounting firm in Uruguay page for companies.
The full guide
Read the complete analysis
The words and the trap behind them, the full comparison, the software layer, what we look at, the home-country warning, more questions, sources and professional review.
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. 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.
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.
The full comparison
Legal separation. In your own name there is no separation between you and the activity; an SAS is a corporate structure distinct from its owners.
Ownership. One holder, and it is you; or shares, which may be held by one or more people.
Income tax framework. In your own name it depends on how the activity is characterised and on your own tax position; an SAS follows the regime applicable to companies.
Social security. Analysed according to the activity and your situation; for an SAS, analysed for the company and for the roles within it.
Accounting obligations. Lighter in many cases in your own name, though not absent; corporate obligations for an SAS, which are more demanding.
Registration. Both register with the tax office and the social security institution; the SAS does so 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. 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.
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. 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. We keep that analysis on its own page: what actually qualifies under the Uruguayan software regime.
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. Deciding first and analysing afterwards means the analysis can only ratify or embarrass the decision.
What we look at when we compare the structures for your case
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; and the points that must be confirmed under your home country’s law. 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. Setting the structure up and running it afterwards have their own scope and fee. How an engagement works is explained on the expats page.
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, 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.
More questions
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.
Sources and scope
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)
- Credentials
- The author is a Uruguayan public accountant registered with the CCEAU, the national professional body.
- Related reading in other languages
- Português (same comparison, Brazilian angle) · Español (narrower: software exporters only)
Having the structures compared
Which vehicle fits your case, and why the other one does not.
When the question has narrowed to which structure, the useful next step is a focused review of your situation rather than a longer article. Scope and fee are confirmed in writing before we start.