A self-employed worker is a person who carries out an economic or professional activity on a HABITUAL basis, organises his or her own way of working, his or her own timetable and has his or her own resources.
When this is the case, the self-employed worker is obliged to register for his or her activity with both the tax authorities and the Social Security.
JDV Expatax would like to explain in more detail the types of self-employed in Spain and the tax obligations of the self-employed. We are an experienced agency for foreign self-employed in Barcelona
Becoming self-employed in Spain
Registration with the tax authorities is done by means of form 036, and serves to register your activity under a heading, to be able to issue invoices and to pay taxes as a self-employed person (both VAT and personal income tax). In other words, whenever you have an activity, whatever it is and whatever income you earn, you have to register with the Tax Authorities.
Registration with the Social Security is done through the SEDE ELECTRONICA, and requires a Digital Certificate. In this way, you will enter the Social Security contribution system, and you will be able to contribute to it through the self-employed fee, the monthly payment made by the self-employed to this body.
The self-employed worker is directly responsible for complying with the obligation to apply for registration and, where applicable, affiliation.
Exceptions for registering with the Social Security system
Following the rulings adopted by the Courts, it can be deduced that it is not necessary to register with the Social Security when the following two circumstances are present:
▪️ Your income does not exceed the Minimum Interprofessional Wage.
▪️ The activity is not recurrent over time, i.e. it is not carried out periodically but sporadically. It should be clarified that a self-employed worker who invoices once a year, is understood to be periodic (in this case annual) and would not be considered sporadic.
Types of self-employed
The types of self-employed in Spain are as follow:
Self-employed worker
A natural person who carries out work on a regular basis in order to obtain remuneration from it, does not have an employment contract that binds him/her to work on behalf of an employer, the cost and benefits of the activity are borne by him/her, and he/she may or may not have employees contracted to work for him/her.
Self-employed Company
Partner who has effective control of his company and who also works in it for profit (in the event of performing his functions free of charge, he must also pay contributions as a self-employed company worker, as it is understood that he is indirectly obtained) and on a regular basis.
You are presumed to have effective control of your company if you meet the following requirements:
– If he owns 50% of the capital by adding his shares, those of his spouse and those of his relatives up to the second degree who live with him.
– If, individually, you own at least one third of the capital.
– If you own 25% of the capital and also exercise management functions.
Family workers
Likewise, family members up to the second degree who live with the employer, are dependent on him/her and are considered to be salaried employees must register with the RETA as Collaborating Family Members. In the case of corporate self-employed, the sum of the shares of the family members living with the employer must be at least 50% for this obligation to exist.
TRADE (Economically Dependent Self-Employed Worker)
Type of self-employed worker who derives at least 75% of his income from a single client. For the calculation of 75%, all income from the main client and from other clients is taken into account, whether it comes from work (in cash or in kind) or from economic or professional activities.
Requirements to be met
These would be the requirements to be fulfilled:
– It must not have employees under contract.
– It may not carry out its activity in an undifferentiated manner with respect to the workers who provide services under any type of employment contract for its main client.
– It must have its own material and infrastructures
– To carry out its activity with its own organisational criteria
If the requirements are met, a written contract must be formalised with the main client detailing the conditions, and it must be registered within 15 working days with the SEPE.
