Freelance quota

Businessman working in the office

La Freelancers quota is a headache for many: to understand it, to accept it, to pay for it and assimilate it, and there are many variants, conditions, subsidies and even urban legends about it.

We will try to tell you everything about the freelance fee and the famous and attractive 'flat fee' of fifty euros.

When you start, or any, to work on your own, you must 'become autonomous' to be able to work within the legal framework of Spain, acquiring certain benefits and obligations with it.

The main one is the registration in the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers (RETA), which involves the monthly payment of a fee that we know as the 'self-employed fee' that varies every year.

This fee is paid from the first day of activity of your business or work as a freelancer. You might work like autonomous dependent or independent. Here we will talk about independents.

The self-employed must make the payment of said fee to the General Social Security Treasury, indicating an account number, with IBAN included in said treasury, remembering that this rate or monthly fee is not the only one that a self-employed person must comply with.

La freelance quota It is nothing more than a percentage calculated on the basis of contribution, or let's say, the salary, that the worker estimates to have each month, having a minimum and maximum contribution base established by the Government of Spain.

This base of quote will be the basis (sorry for the redundancy) to calculate unemployment benefits, leaves due to accidents or illnesses, and, above all, to calculate retirement, as we will see later.

The minimum contribution base is, in 2016, € 893,10 per month, which amounts to a monthly fee of € 267,04, and the maximum is € 3.642 per month.

You should know that 85% of the self-employed register under the minimum contribution base, either because their income is not enough, due to uncertainty or simply because they ignore, voluntarily or not, the effects of choosing the base in the medium and long future.

Types of freelance fees

Before continuing, you should be clear that there is not a single quota of freelancers, since depending on age, sector of activity, moonlighting, etc. The State establishes different quotas:

• Autonomous with multiple activities

In the first 18 months of activity, the fee is € 133,52 per month, and then € 200,28 per month.

• Self-employed with 10 employees

If your company has or had 10 employees in your company, the fee is € 1,063.33 per month. If you only contribute for minimum contingencies, the monthly fee is € 319,14.

• Self-employed persons under 47 years of age

There are several conditions for freelancers who are 47 years of age or younger, these are:

1. If your contribution in 2015 was equal to or greater than 1.945,80, or if you have just signed up for the self-employed regime, you can choose the amount between the minimum base and the maximum allowed by the Government in the current year .
2. If your contribution was 1.945,80 or less, you cannot choose a base higher than € 1.964,70 per month, unless you declare it before June 30 of the current year, or you are a surviving spouse (it is the one who takes over his partner's business after the latter passes away)

• Self-employed 48 years or older

Self-employed persons 48 years of age and older must choose a minimum of € 963,30 and a maximum of € 1.964,70 per month as a contribution base, so your freelance fee each month will be at least 288,03 euros.

If you are 50 years old or over, you must establish your daily contribution base according to your activity in recent years.

In general, these are the different types of self-employed regimes that exist in Spain, although there are more according to each activity, age and profile of the person who registers as a self-employed person, so you must be very careful and go to an expert to guide you in this regard.

How the freelance fee is calculated

You already know the most important thing: there are different freelance fees and that you must start paying from the first day of activity in your business, and that, as we have seen in the previous point, there are different fees, depending on the profession, age and others. factors, you will have a Quotation base that you should chooseWhether or not you agree with the amount, you know, the Government sends, for example, this 2016 increased by 1% compared to 2015, and more increases are expected in 2017.

In addition to all this, you should know that there are also coverages, like any insurance policy: depending on the chosen coverage, you will pay more or less.

These are the coverages you can choose for your pprotection in the self-employed regime:

1. Common contingencies: Represents 29,90%, and covers common contingencies plus breastfeeding and pregnancy.
2. Contingency due to cessation of activity: Represents 31,5% of the daily contribution base that you have established.
3. Contingency for accidents at work: Represents 29,3% plus the percentage according to the branch of activity according to CNAE.
4. Contingency for accidents at work and cessation of activity: It is 31,5% plus the percentage of the activity category, according to CNAE.

If you chose the minimum monthly contribution base, these would be the quotas according to each mentioned contingency:

• Common contingencies: € 893,10 x 29,90% = € 267,04 per month
• With cessation of activity: € 893,10 x 31,6% = € 282,22 per month
• Contingencies by activity: € 893.10 x 29,3% +% CNAE = € 268,72 - € 325,53
• With work accident and termination due to activity: € 893,10 x 31,5% +% CNAE rate = € 289,36 - € 345,18

Do you have to pay your freelance fee if you don't make it to the SMI?

Now we want to show you a problem in recent Spain: whether or not to register as self-employed when the income is small.

Let's suppose that you generate a monthly income of € 300 in your activity, be it a graphic designer, bricklayer, architect or teacher. The freelance fee will leave you practically zero, Not to mention other taxes that the self-employed must face.

And the thing is that more people have this problem than you think, and that leads them not to sign up for the self-employed regime, and therefore form part of the country's underground economy, causing a hole in the general budgets each year, valued in billions of euros.

What is the problem? The legal gap in the matter: the Law does not say what to do with people who earn less than the Minimum Interprofessional Salary.

If this is your case, and you consult the Ministry of Finance, they will tell you to register with the Treasury, so that your income is supervised by the ministry, in order not to handle 'black' money. They will tell you to sign up with form 036 or 037, so you can issue invoices to your clients.

Si vas a social security, they will tell you that you must register as a freelancer yes or yes, regardless of whether you earn ten euros or two thousand each month. You must comply with them, that's what they will tell you.

Many self-employed workers therefore choose to register with the tax office, in order to legally declare their income, without registering with social security, with the risk that, in a data crossing, the latter, which is very meticulous and rigorous , send you a fine claiming the fees that you have not paid, plus a 20% surcharge for that amount.

Although there has been jurisprudence in these cases since 2007, that is, many freelancers have received this sanction, and the Supreme Court has annulled them when it understands that, if the minimum contribution base and / or the minimum interprofessional salary are not reached, there is no the obligation to pay the self-employed fee.

Although you should not, or you or anyone else, take risks, it is best to seek advice and avoid a possible fine, and although you may be able to appeal it, all the paperwork and the process of the procedure is not pleasant.

Take advantage of the flat rate in the freelance fee

Whether or not your problem, you should know that the Government of Spain approved since 2013 a flat rate in the self-employed fee, reducing it to € 50 per month instead of the full fees that we have seen. Initially it was only for those under 30, but in 2015 they left it for everyone.

It consists of reducing the quota to a minimum and little by little reaching the full payment of the quota, in order to combat the underground economy and promote self-employment.

This is how you would pay the freelance fees with the flat rate:

1. € 50 per month for the first six months
2. € 133 per month from the seventh to the twelfth month
3. € 187 per month from month 13 to 18

The requirements to access this flat rate:

1. Not having been enrolled in the self-employed regime in the last five years
2. Not being an administrator of a commercial company
3. Not having received any social security bonus, never, without periods of time
4. Not being an autonomous collaborator