One year after the approval of the reform of the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) for the period between 2023 and 2025, only 15% of the self-employed have communicated their income forecast to social security; about 480,000 are self-employed workers because the “large majority of the group” is charging the same and does not plan to talk to them, explained the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA) in its XIX Barometer.
In this way, they will wait for the Treasury to adjust their fees through the income declared in the income tax return. Because more than half of the total is concentrated in the minimum base, they do not transfer new information.
Of the nearly 500,000 who have done it, 30% will pay the same amount as they paid before the reform, 30% have lowered it, and 37.1% have increased the bill. Despite the smallness of this figure, the president of the ATA, Lorenzo Amor, expects it to “double before the end of the year,” reaching 27% of the group, or about 800,000 workers. For their part, 25% are “still very confused about the new price,” and it is not clear if they have done that communication.
The new system, applied since January 1 of this year, requires that the net returns be entered to calculate the contributions, which means subtracting all the expenses of the activity and, on top of it, a deduction for expenses applied. generic 7% and 3% for corporate self-employed workers. In addition, self-employed workers can change the section every two months and a total of six times a year, depending on seasonality or income forecast.
At the end of the financial year and once the annual net returns are determined, contributions will be regularized, returned, or claimed fees if the final net returns are less or more than indicated in the year’s forecasts.
With the new contribution system, it is expected that one out of two self-employed workers will have a lower quota than at present, while 25% will contribute and 25% will contribute less. In any case, another goal is to adjust the rates as much as possible so that Social Security does not stop receiving income due to a more generic calculation.
Poor reception
As of the end of September, the self-employed have a negative view of the latest system reform. Only 6.3% are in favor of the new rule and consider that it will not affect them.
On the contrary, almost one in two self-employed workers, 44.3%, believes that this new pension system will not benefit them. One in three self-employed workers, 34.3%, considers that this reform is unnecessary and that it will seriously affect them. For their part, 14.4% believe that, even if it is necessary, they do not know if they can carry the new burdens.
Finally, a large 34.9% said they did not know what the proposed new model consisted of.
Without funding in Europe
To overcome the consequences of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Next Generation funds were launched by the European Union. 72.1% of the self-employed confirmed that they do not have access to any assistance from Next Generation funds. Help to digitize companies is the most requested by self-employed Spaniards, especially by 18.1% of self-employed workers surveyed.
