Uruguayan accountants · In English
How to set up a company in Uruguay as a foreigner, remotely or in person
Being foreign is not, in itself, what makes this complicated. What makes it complicated is deciding what to set up before dealing with how to set it up, and most guides start at the wrong end.
Being foreign isn’t the hard part. Deciding what to set up comes before how to set it up.
- Since 1993Over 30 years in professional practice
- CCEAU 61148 · 225636CCEAU-registered public accountants
- La Barra, MaldonadoOffice visits by appointment
- Anywhere in UruguayRemote service nationwide
The order matters more than the paperwork
Setting up the entity is an operational step. Choosing what to set up comes first.
Almost every guide to this subject is a list of registrations. Registrations are the easy part, and they are impossible to get right if the question before them was skipped.
Diagnosis
What the activity actually is, where the work is performed, who your clients are and how you contract with them. This determines everything downstream, and it is the step people skip. It is the Tax & Structure Assessment: paid work, with a written report.
Choose the structure
In your own name or through a company, and if a company, which one. A decision that follows from the diagnosis, not from a comparison table.
Documentation
Identification, powers, signatures and the instruments the chosen vehicle requires. What is needed varies with the structure and with your own circumstances.
Registrations
With the tax office and the social security institution, plus whatever the chosen vehicle requires in addition. The step everyone pictures when they imagine the process.
Invoicing
Being able to issue valid documents to your clients, in the form Uruguay requires, with your contracts and payment records lined up with them.
Ongoing accounting
Filings, reporting and obligations that repeat. The structure has to keep making sense in month eleven, not only on the day it opens.
Steps three to six are work we do routinely, and they are largely mechanical. Steps one and two are where the value is, and where a wrong turn is expensive. Two ways in, then: if you already know what to set up, we quote the incorporation directly; if the structure still needs validating, the assessment comes first. Once the entity is operating, the same accountant can carry on with the monthly accounting, tax and filings.
The question we are asked first
Being foreign is not, by itself, an obstacle. Not being excluded is not the same as everything being remote.
What the official position says.Uruguay XXI, the government investment and export promotion agency, states that partners do not need Uruguayan nationality or residence in any of the business types it describes; what is required is a legal address in Uruguay. Your passport is not the problem.
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Not every step can be completed from abroad
A passport is not sufficient for every step of every process, and some Uruguayan identification or credential is needed along the way.
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A bank account does not follow automatically
Banks apply their own criteria and make their own decisions.
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The timeline is not the same for everyone
A fixed number of days published without knowing your structure or your documents is not information you can plan against.
What the procedure depends on
No universal checklist, because there is no honest version of one.
What we can tell you is which variables move the documentation and the timeline. Worth confirming for your case before you book flights or commit to a date with a client; it usually takes one conversation.
The vehicle you choose
Different structures have different formation requirements. What a company needs is not what operating in your own name needs.
How you are identified
Which identity documents you hold, and which of them the specific procedure accepts, is not uniform across every step.
Digital credentials
A growing share of Uruguayan procedures runs through online systems, and access to those systems has its own requirements.
Signatures and powers
Who signs, how they sign and whether someone can sign for you shapes both what is possible remotely and how long it takes.
Where you are during the process
Being in the country for part of it can simplify some steps. Whether that is necessary depends on how the other variables combine.
Current administrative practice
Requirements and available channels change. What was true two years ago is not a safe basis for planning today.
Questions we hear first
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner own a company in Uruguay?
Yes. Uruguay XXI, the government investment and export promotion agency, states that partners do not need Uruguayan nationality or residence in the business types it describes, and that a legal address in Uruguay is required. Nationality is not the obstacle people expect it to be.
Can the whole process be done remotely?
Some steps can be, and how much depends on the vehicle, your identification, the digital credentials involved, how signatures are handled and current administrative practice. We would not promise a fully remote setup without looking at your case, because that promise is not one anyone can honestly make in advance.
How long does it take?
There is no single answer, and a fixed number of days published without knowing your structure or your documents is not information you can plan against. We give you a realistic timeline for your circumstances once those two things are settled.
Will I be able to open a bank account?
Banks apply their own criteria and make their own decisions, so account opening is not something an accounting firm can guarantee. What we can do is make sure the structure and its documentation are in the state a bank will expect.
If a step before this one is still open
What is your next question?
- SAS or sole proprietorshipThe structure decision itself, compared point by point.
- Moving to Uruguay and working remotelyIf your situation still needs framing before any structure is chosen.
- Software and the tax exemptionIf the activity is software, where the requirements deserve their own reading.
- Forming an SASIf you already know you want an SAS: what we handle, with a notary and an accountant in one process.
Opening a subsidiary or a branch of a foreign company? The accounting firm in Uruguay page covers that case. Looking for your activity? See who we advise.
The full guide
Read the complete analysis
Who this page is for, the four ways it goes wrong, what we handle and what stays with your adviser, what we define with you, more questions, sources and professional review.
Who this page is written for
This is about setting up the vehicle for a professional or entrepreneurial activity: consulting, software, marketing, design, recruitment, IT, professional services and similar work, carried out from Uruguay for clients who may be anywhere. You will recognise yourself if you have decided to operate from Uruguay and want to know the order of the steps; your clients are international, or a mix of local and international; you are moving, have recently moved, or are already here and formalising; and you want the structure to be right the first time rather than fixed later.
This is not the page for branches of multinational groups, industrial plants, free zone operations, agribusiness, acquisitions or holding structures. Those are real and Uruguay handles them well, but they are a different exercise with a different team and a different sequence.
Why the order matters
Unwinding a structure that was set up before the analysis means new registrations, changes to how you invoice, adjustments to contributions and a period of operating in a way that afterwards has to be undone.
The four ways this goes wrong
Setting up before deciding. Opening a vehicle because it was quick, then discovering it does not suit the activity. Reversing it costs more than the original setup did.
Copying a structure from another country. What worked in your last jurisdiction does not transfer. The names may be similar; the obligations are not.
Planning against a timeline someone published. Committing to a client start date on the strength of a number from a blog is how a setup becomes urgent, and urgency is expensive.
Treating registration as the finish line. The obligations begin at registration rather than ending there. A structure nobody maintains creates problems quietly and reveals them late.
What we handle in Uruguay, and what stays with your adviser at home
Estudio Zurbriggen is a Uruguayan accounting firm. Setting up here can have consequences where you are from, and those are not ours to determine. Our side: the diagnosis and the choice of structure under Uruguayan rules; formation, registrations and getting you able to invoice; ongoing accounting and the obligations that repeat; and a clear statement of which points depend on your home country. Not our side: how your home country treats a Uruguayan structure you own, what you must report there, and what any of it means for your position under US, UK, Canadian, German, Australian or other domestic law. We set out the questions precisely so that adviser can answer them quickly. The boundary in full is on the expats page.
What we define with you before the setup process begins
The activity and how it is characterised under Uruguayan rules; which structure fits, and which ones can be ruled out; what your case will require in documentation and identification; what can realistically be done remotely and what cannot; a sequence and a realistic timeline for your circumstances; the registrations that will apply and what follows them; and the points that must be confirmed under your home country’s law. You get a clear view of what to set up, what your process involves and in what order, before anything is registered in your name. The setup itself and the ongoing accounting have their own scope and fee.
More questions
Do I need to be a Uruguayan tax resident to set something up? Tax residence and the ability to register an activity are separate questions, decided by different rules. Treating one as a precondition for the other is a common source of confusion, and the requirements that do apply depend on the structure and the procedure.
Should I set up a company or operate in my own name? That is the decision that comes before this page rather than after it, and it depends on the activity, how you contract, what is at stake and your own situation. We compare the two options in detail on a separate page.
What does this cost? The fee depends on the case and on which structure is involved. 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 setting up and registering a business activity as at August 2026, prepared against the applicable legislation and the official guidance of Uruguay XXI (the government investment and export promotion agency), the DGI (the Uruguayan tax office), the BPS (the social security institution), IMPO (the official repository of Uruguayan legislation) and the procedures published on gub.uy. It is informational and does not replace advice on a specific case. Documentation, procedure and timing depend on the structure chosen, the identification and credentials involved, how signatures are handled and the administrative requirements in force at the time. Matters governed by 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.
- Other languages
- Español · Português
Who analyses your case
Two registered public accountants, one point of contact.
Your case is handled by a partner of the firm, with complete discretion: the report is confidential, and after delivering it we stay with you through implementation.
We work with you mainly in writing, in English, including the report; calls are also possible.
Cr. Matías Zurbriggen
Public Accountant · CCEAU 225636
Handles tax residency, service exports and software, including clients based abroad.
Cr. Fernando Zurbriggen
Public Accountant · CCEAU 61148
In practice since 1990; founded the firm in 1993. Companies, tax, payroll and administration.
Before the setup process begins
Confirm what to set up before anything is registered in your name.
Still deciding the structure? Start with the 60-second pre-check: if your case warrants a Tax & Structure Assessment, we confirm the scope, fee and timeline in writing before starting. Already know what to set up? Ask for the incorporation quote directly.