The network covers El Salvador within the Central America and the Caribbean region. Payslips there are drawn up in USD, and dealings with a local firm are conducted in Spanish.
The business centres where the network is looking for a correspondent as a priority are San Salvador, Santa Ana, San Miguel, Soyapango.
The country lies outside the European Union and outside the European Economic Area: the A1 certificate has no standing there. Whether the employee remains in the scheme of origin then depends on the bilateral social security agreement, if any, concluded with the sending country; where no such agreement exists, dual affiliation must be expected and budgeted into the assignment.
The answer to this question changes everything: it determines to whom you may entrust your payslips locally, and what you must ask for before signing. It has been verified country by country with the local authorities.
In El Salvador, running payroll on behalf of third parties is a regulated activity. It is carried on under the title of Contador Público autorizado / Licenciado en Contaduría Pública inscrit au CVPCPA, and a registration in force must be produced to you before any engagement.
Le Salvador encadre l'exercice de la contaduría pública par la Ley Reguladora del Ejercicio de la Contaduría : l'inscription au registre du CVPCPA conditionne l'exercice professionnel, y compris pour les despachos organisés en personne morale. La paie prise isolément n'est pas une activité expressément réservée, mais elle est en pratique fournie par des contadores inscrits, et la signature des états financiers l'est.
El Salvador employs in US dollars, which are legal tender. For a French company that shifts currency risk onto the euro-dollar relationship and makes it necessary to state clearly which currency remuneration is set in and when conversion takes place.
Spanish is the language of contracts, payslips and proceedings. Social protection is split between two worlds: the Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social (ISSS, the Salvadoran social security institute), which covers health and occupational risks, and the Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP, private pension fund managers), which carry retirement. Two affiliations, two payment channels, two compliance certificates: an employer handling only one of them is in default.
The accounting profession is supervised by the Consejo de Vigilancia de la Profesión de Contaduría Pública y Auditoría (CVPCPA, the supervisory board for public accountancy and audit), whose register conditions professional practice, including for firms incorporated as companies. Payroll on its own is not expressly reserved, but in practice it is handled by registered professionals.
Registering with the ISSS and declaring employees is not enough: each employee must also be enrolled with a pension fund manager, to which the employer pays the corresponding contributions. Tax identifiers, for their part, are obtained from the Ministry of Finance.
Legal existence and how it is evidenced are handled alongside that. The deed of incorporation entered in the commercial register establishes the company, but it is the business and establishment registration, renewed annually, that shows it is in order; a file presenting the first document without the second is incomplete.
Written in Spanish, the contract must be provided to the labour authorities in the prescribed manner. Check classification, working time, the treatment of overtime and leave entitlements.
Income tax is withheld at source, health and pension contributions follow their own calendars, and the mandatory annual year-end bonus is provisioned as soon as the budget is built.
Sums due on termination finally vary with the ground relied upon and with length of service, and they are calculated before the decision is taken rather than afterwards. Check as well the staff register and the notices required to be displayed, both of which the labour inspectorate examines during visits; payroll records are kept for periods of their own that are worth knowing.
The network asks 9 documents of any firm wishing to represent it in El Salvador. The table gives, for each of them, the exact wording in use locally, the body that issues it and the period during which it remains admissible. These are the terms to use in an application to the local administration.
Of these 9 documents, 7 are required of every applicant and 6 have a limited period of validity, the shortest being 3 months. 2 of these documents exist only in El Salvador and have no equivalent in the common core of the network.
| Local wording | Issuing body | Validity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Escritura pública de constitución inscrita en el Registro de ComercioDeed of incorporation registered with the Commercial Registry Au Salvador, la personnalité morale naît de l'inscription de l'escritura de constitución au Registro de Comercio du CNR. La pièce ne se périme pas, mais elle ne dit rien de la situation actuelle du cabinet : la compléter par la matrícula (pièce suivante). | Centro Nacional de Registros (CNR) — Registro de Comercio | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Matrícula de Empresa y EstablecimientoBusiness and establishment registration certificate Pièce spécifiquement salvadorienne et véritablement discriminante : la matrícula se renouvelle chaque année et son défaut de renouvellement expose à des amendes. C'est elle, et non l'escritura, qui prouve que le cabinet est en règle au registre du commerce à la date de la candidature. | Centro Nacional de Registros (CNR) — Registro de Comercio | 12 months Required | Official website |
| NIT (Número de Identificación Tributaria) y NRC (Número de Registro de Contribuyente)Tax identification number and VAT taxpayer registration number Deux numéros distincts à ne pas confondre : le NIT identifie le contribuable (le Ministerio de Hacienda propose désormais un « NIT digital » en ligne), le NRC atteste l'assujettissement à l'IVA et conditionne l'émission de factures fiscales. Un cabinet qui facture des prestations de services doit avoir les deux. | Ministerio de Hacienda — Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Solvencia tributaria / Estado de cuenta tributariaTax clearance certificate Demander le document tel qu'il est édité par le portail DGII, avec sa date. | Ministerio de Hacienda — Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Solvencia patronal del ISSS y solvencia de la AFPSocial security (ISSS) and pension fund (AFP) clearance certificates Particularité salvadorienne : la protection sociale est scindée. L'ISSS couvre la santé et les risques professionnels, les AFP privées gèrent la retraite. Il faut donc deux solvencias, pas une. Un candidat qui ne produit que la solvencia de l'ISSS n'a pas prouvé sa régularité en matière de retraite. | Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social (ISSS) et Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP Confía, AFP Crecer) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Solvencia municipalMunicipal clearance certificate Les entreprises salvadoriennes acquittent des taxes municipales assises sur l'actif et la solvencia municipal est systématiquement réclamée dans les appels d'offres locaux. Utile comme indice de sérieux administratif, sans en faire une condition d'entrée pour un partenaire international. | Alcaldía municipal du lieu d'établissement | 3 months Where applicable | No online service |
| Póliza de seguro de responsabilidad civil profesionalProfessional liability insurance policy Aucune obligation légale générale identifiée pour un despacho contable salvadorien. À exiger contractuellement par le réseau, auprès d'une compagnie agréée par la SSF. | Compagnie agréée par la Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero (SSF) | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| Inscripción en el registro del Consejo de Vigilancia de la Profesión de Contaduría Pública y Auditoría (CVPCPA)Registration with the Public Accountancy and Audit Supervisory Board Le CVPCPA est l'organisme public de surveillance de la profession, régi par la Ley Reguladora del Ejercicio de la Contaduría (réformée en 2017). Il inscrit à la fois les personnes physiques et les despachos constitués en personne morale. Demander l'inscription du cabinet et celle du contador público responsable. Le CVPCPA ne dispose pas d'un site propre facilement identifiable : le portail de transparence gouvernemental est la référence la plus sûre. | Consejo de Vigilancia de la Profesión de Contaduría Pública y Auditoría (CVPCPA) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| DUI o pasaporte del representante legal + credencial de representante legal inscritaLegal representative's ID and registered credential of representation La « credencial de representante legal » inscrite au Registro de Comercio est la pièce qui établit le pouvoir d'engager la société : c'est elle, plus que le DUI, qui doit être vérifiée. Elle est délivrée pour la durée du mandat, souvent limitée dans les statuts. | Registro de Comercio (CNR) pour la credencial ; Registro Nacional de las Personas Naturales (RNPN) pour le DUI | No expiry Required | Official website |
The duality of the social system is the structuring feature: health and occupational risks on one side, retirement managed by private operators on the other. Two compliance certificates are needed, and omitting the pension fund certificate is the most frequent error in Salvadoran files.
The annual business registration is the live document in the file, whereas the deed of incorporation is only a starting point. In some municipalities a local compliance certificate is required alongside it.
The country finally has no general personal data protection statute in force. No document can therefore be required on that basis, and protection of payroll data has to rest entirely on the processing agreement concluded with the partner, which makes its drafting a matter of substance rather than form, and worth the time of someone who has read the local rules.
Trois particularités. 1) L'escritura de constitución ne suffit pas : c'est la Matrícula de Empresa y Establecimiento, à renouvellement annuel, qui prouve que le cabinet est en règle. 2) La protection sociale est scindée entre l'ISSS (santé, risques professionnels) et les AFP privées (retraite) : deux solvencias sont nécessaires. 3) Le Salvador ne dispose pas, à ma connaissance, d'une loi générale de protection des données personnelles en vigueur — aucune pièce « protection_donnees » n'a donc été retenue ; le réseau doit couvrir ce risque par son propre contrat de sous-traitance, sans point d'appui législatif local.
The network opens 3 partner slots in El Salvador, not one more. No firm is listed there yet: all 3 slots therefore remain open to applications.
No listed partner in El Salvador has asked to appear in the public directory. The contact details of a firm are passed on to the client only when an assignment is awarded.
Filing an application does not amount to admission: every request is reviewed one by one. There is no minimum turnover requirement, and the partner selected invoices its fees directly.
Submit an application: we review your file, we check the documents required on the ground and we give you an answer, whether it is positive or not.
A Salvadoran firm must produce its entry on the CVPCPA register, with the registration number and the date of its most recent authorisation, together with the contador público status of the person signing the work. We ask for the deed of incorporation entered in the commercial register, the current business and establishment registration, the tax identifiers, the tax compliance certificate, and the employer compliance certificates from the ISSS and from the pension funds. The legal representative's identity document and registered credential complete the file.
Describe your requirement. No firm is listed in El Salvador yet: we review the request, then entrust it to a local firm that the network identifies and vets, or to the partner of a neighbouring country covering this territory. Your contact details are passed on to the selected firm alone.
Request a provider in El SalvadorMobility is rarely arranged one country at a time. The neighbouring profiles follow the same outline.
These countries account for most of the requests received: each one has, in addition to its profile, six pages devoted to a single aspect of local payroll.
The information gathered on this page comes from the registers, administrations and bodies listed below, consulted when the reference base was compiled. It is given for guidance and does not replace the advice of a professional established in El Salvador.