Gestor
There is no one-word translation for the profession in Spain of a ‘gestor’, a person who acts as an intermediary with officialdom for his or her clients.
Photo EFE
They are specialised professionals whose agency, the ‘gestoría’, deals with administrative procedures on their clients’ behalf, for bureaucratic procedures between the administration and the administered.
The profession’s statues state that they offer a service in return for a fee of, ‘initiating, requesting and carrying out all types of administrative processes which do not require the application of the legal skills which are reserved for the legal profession, in relation to those matters which, in the interest of individuals or businesses and at their request, are undertaken before any body of the public administration.’
A gestor must either have a degree in law, in economic sciences, business sciences or political sciences, must have passed the entrance exam set for the profession and must be a member of the official professional body of ‘gestores administrativos’.
They are a vital figure for many businesses in Spain and are experts in dealing with Spanish bureaucracy.
A gestor is generally used by smaller businesses and the self-employed. Larger firms would employ an accountant.
A gestoría’s job can include all the paperwork involved with setting up a new business, taking care of your accounts, your tax returns, your IVA/VAT returns, advising you what you can put down as a deduction ….. for private matters, they will also deal with the Traffic Authority on your behalf for matters such as a change of car ownership, renewing your driving licence or changing a vehicle’s foreign registration to Spanish.
The profession has a history of centuries, from the 15th Century ‘solicitador’ to the business agents from the mid-19th Century onwards. The denomination of ‘gestor administrativo’ was officially recognised in 1933.
