Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

FREELANCING

The help that self-employed in Spain can apply for in 2023

Anyone who is self-employed in Spain knows it's tough. Fortunately, there are several grants and benefits available to autónomos and small businesses this year to help you out.

Published: 2 February 2023 15:23 CET
The help that self-employed in Spain can apply for in 2023
Being self-employed in Austria can be rewarding. But there's a few things to be aware of that foreigners might not have experienced before in their home countries. Photo: Pixabay.

There are 3,329,863 autónomos or self-employed people in Spain, but according to the Asociación de Trabajadores Autónomos, Spain’s self-employed union, more than 2 million self-employed workers (which is 63 percent of them) have an income that is below Spain’s Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI).

READ ALSO: Spain to raise minimum wage by 8 percent

With self-employed workers earning so little and having to pay very high monthly social security payments, which go down €200 a month for lower earners and progressively higher – up to €590 a month for higher earners, many may be forced to look for support where they can. 

What benefits and help are available?

Spain offers a whole host of benefits and help for self-employed people, including the following, which are all available this year.

Starting a new company

Grants of up €10,000 are available to people to help them launch a new business or company. The exact amount varies, and they are aimed at helping unemployed young people aged 30 years or younger, unemployed women, unemployed people with disabilities, and unemployed women with disabilities.

In the case of victims of gender violence, grants can be boosted by 10 percent.

Investment subsidies

There is also aid to help you finance investments. The subsidies work out equivalent to a 4 percent reduction on the interest rate set by the body or business that grants the loan, with the subsidy limit being a maximum of €10,000.

Training

If a self-employed person wishes to undertake some extra training to improve their business or career prospects, they can apply for aid that covers up to 75 percent of the cost up to a maximum of €3,000.

READ ALSO – REVEALED: Everything you need to know about applying for Spain’s digital nomad visa

Digitalisation 

The Spanish government also offers a so-called ‘Digital Kit’, which can be accessed through grants of up to €2,000 to help ‘digitalise’ a business to make it more competitive. These grants are intended for things such as creating a website or e-commerce platform, managing social networks, installing cybersecurity or upgrading systems.

The ‘zero quota’

As many of you probably already know, in Spain self-employed people not only pay quarterly income tax (IRPF in Spain) but must also pay a monthly social security payment. You can read all about that and upcoming changes to the system here, but note that some regions offer to waive this fee in order to promote entrepreneurism.

READ ALSO: New self-employed workers in Madrid to pay no social security tax

Madrid, Andalusia and Murcia all do, and the Balearic Islands will do it for self-employed people under 35 and for women entrepreneurs. These grants effectively mean the region picks up the tab for your monthly fee. It is available for one year and extendable by another 12 months if the recipient’s net income is lower than the SMI.

Minimum Vital Income

Since January, the number of self-employed people who can access the Minimum Vital Income has also increased. This benefit is compatible with income from self-employment and has also been increased. If you qualify, you could get an extra €565.37 per month for a single person without kids and more if you have children. You can find out more about it here. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

AMERICANS IN SPAIN

EXCLUSIVE: What the new Spain-US social security deal means for Americans

The Local speaks to the Spanish government and tax experts to understand what the new social security and pensions agreement between the United States and Spain means for American workers, digital nomads and pensioners in Spain.

Published: 15 May 2024 11:10 CEST
EXCLUSIVE: What the new Spain-US social security deal means for Americans

In early April, the United States and Spain announced a new social security and pension agreement.

The first update to the bilateral agreement between the two countries since 1986 was announced by US Ambassador to Spain, Julissa Reynoso, and Spain’s Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, Elma Saiz.

The official agreement is unpublished so The Local spoke with a representative from Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration as well as international tax experts to understand the agreement in more detail.

Key aspects of the agreement

The Ministry told The Local Spain that the agreement is a step towards, bolstering mobility between Spain and the United States by improving pension calculations and social security protections.

The agreement has to do with the accumulation of benefits and affects working Americans living in Spain. There are two main components; the first affects which system people pay into (Spanish or American) and the second maximises the amount people can collect from social security.
 
Regarding paying into social security, the new agreement extends the “posting period” from three years to five years, with the possibility of extending it to seven years.

READ ALSO:

This is meaningful for US employees who are working in Spain and means that they can now pay into the US social security system, rather than the Spanish social security system for longer.

Whereas the employee contributions in Spain and the United States are similar, 6.4 percent in Spain and 6.2 percent in the United States, the rate that employers pay differs greatly. In the United States the employer pays 6.2 percent into social security, whereas in Spain they pay 31 percent.
 
Why does this matter? “Previously when Americans moved to Spain, US employers were cutting the amount that they paid in salary because the cost of employment went up so much”, Louis Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Entre Trámites, told The Local Spain.

It’s also made employers hesitant to grant digital nomads an Employer of Record (EOR) which would allow American workers to be on a Spanish contract.

READ ALSO:

In terms of collecting benefits, the representative from Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration says, “In the calculation of the Spanish pension there have been technical modifications that will benefit especially those people who developed their last working life in the United States, without this harming those who have worked in Spain immediately before requesting the benefit.”

In other words, under the new agreement, after calculating a person’s benefits under each country’s system, the recipient will be awarded the most beneficial of those two calculations.

Impacts for self-employed workers and digital nomads

According to the Ministry, “The agreement allows self-employed workers to temporarily move to the other State while maintaining their legislation, a possibility that was previously restricted only to employed workers.”
 
This has big implications for people who avoid moving to Spain because of the complicated social security contributions scheme, as they’ll now be able to continue paying US social security taxes (rather than Spanish) for up to seven years.
 
“The interesting thing is if this is extended to digital nomads because it would make the digital nomad visa more attractive,” says Williams.

“Why? Because if you’re posted by an employer (who can now avoid high Spanish social security taxes) you’re eligible for Beckham’s Law.” The law, which does not extend to autonomous works, can cap tax liabilities at 24 percent.
 
Being posted could make life much simpler, according to Elliott Locke, ACSI, co-founder of abroaden, a financial wellbeing and education start-up for people living abroad headquartered in Barcelona.

“The calculus is harder for freelancers given the different legal structures and methods for freelancing between the two countries. In many ways, if an American moves here to work remotely, it could be beneficial for them to have their US-based employer hire them on a local contract through an employer-of-record,” Locke told The Local.
 
In short, the new agreement could make it more attractive for U.S. companies to post employees in Spain, making them eligible for Beckham’s law and allowing autonomous workers to pay into the U.S. social security system, making it more beneficial and easier to be a digital nomad in Spain.

READ ALSO:

Who benefits from the new agreement?
 
The people who will feel this new agreement the most are employers, digital nomads, retirees who have paid into both systems over the years, and finally, civil servants. “Spain has incorporated as possible beneficiaries of the Agreement those people who have contributed to the civil servant’s regime (passive class regime), who were excluded in the previous Agreement,” says the Ministry.
 
When can we expect the new agreement to come into force?

Don’t hold your breath; this is Spain after all, but we can expect the agreement to come into force within the next two years.

The deal has to pass through Congress before approval, which is likely why it has not yet been published. If things move quickly, people could expect to benefit within a year.

READ ALSO:

SHOW COMMENTS