Tax contribution rises
As any self-employed worker knows, calculating your incomings, outgoings and taxes can be an arduous tax. Unfortunately taxes will be going up for autónomos (self-employed people in Spanish) in 2022.
READ MORE: Spain’s self-employed workers to pay €8 more a month in 2022
This is despite the fact that half of these workers have reported that they won’t recover to pre-pandemic financial levels until at least 2023, according to a poll from Spain’s National Federation of Self-Employed Workers' Associations (ATA).
In short, the new government budget includes an increase in monthly quotas and the contribution base for self-employed workers for 2022.
The minimum contribution base will increase to €960.60 a year; the maximum is set at €4,139.40 instead of the current €4,070.
In short, the monthly fee for the self-employed with a minimum base will be €96 more per year - an 8 percent increase.
Monthly, that will increase minimum contributions from €286 to €293.76.
Self-employed workers who have been registered as self-employed for a couple of years will pay these €8 extra a month in 2022, whereas new autónomos in Spain will pay the same baseline monthly contributions of €60 for the first year, a figure which then rises progressively.
The change will affect almost 2 of the approximately 3.2 million self-employed workers in Spain, including many foreign workers.
Regional support
In response to the tax contribution changes at the national level, plus the underlying economic shock of the pandemic, many of Spain’s regions are now beginning to offer support to its self-employed workers.
In Andalusia, the regional government is giving up to €6,000 for the digital transformation of self-employed businesses, offering to cover expenses on digitisation projects. Until May 26th, 2022, Andalusian entrepreneurs can apply for grants ranging from €1,000 up to a maximum of €6,000.
The Balearic Islands is offering aid of €5,000 for the self-employed who were forced to close during the pandemic.
Young entrepreneurs aged 18 and 29 in Catalonia will be able to access financial aid to help launch their self-employed activity: up to €13,510 to those enrolled in Youth Guarantee programme (Garantía Juvenil).
Meanwhile in Extremadura, entrepreneurs can apply for aid of up to €9,000 to help with ‘the promotion, consolidation and modernisation of the self-employed of the community.’ The regional government hopes to help 6,900 self-employed workers in the western region, with aid ranging from €5,000 to €9,000 and a total budget of €38 million.
In Castilla y León, self-employed workers who return or move their activity to the region will be able to count on aid of between €4,000 and €6,000 to bolster the productive engine of the northern territory.
Digital bonus
The Spanish government is currently finalising the second round of an EU-funded business digitalisation plan, which will include a grant of €3,000 for the self-employed and small businesses with fewer than 10 workers and between 10 and 50.
Although the details are yet to be finalised, it is believed approximately 145,000 small businesses with 10-50 workers would receive the first round of the ‘Digital Kit’ grant, and there are approximately 1,100,000 small businesses (1-9 employees) and 1,600,000 self-employed workers in Spain, the latter being the largest recipient of the digital aid up to €3,000.
READ MORE: Spain to give €3 billion in digital bonuses to one million SMEs and self-employed
Last chance to change contributions quota
The deadline for self-employed workers to increase or decrease the quota for their tax contributions is December 31st, ready for the new changes in the New Year.
Although the change in contributions were not negotiated with self-employed and small business unions, as is customary, La Moncloa's hopes to have the changes approved by the end of December so they can come into effect on January 1, 2022. That leaves just a few days to change the quota on contributions if self-employed or small business owners are anticipating another year of pandemic affected income.
A minimum tax of 15 percent on corporate tax for some companies
One of the tax novelties of the government’s 2022 budget proposes is the creation of a minimum rate of 15 percent for companies that invoice more than €20 million euros and banking and hydrocarbon companies.
A rate of 10 percent in corporate tax for newly created entities
Another is that entrepreneurs will have to pay a minimum corporate tax of 10 percent, reducing the minimum taxation required in corporate tax on newly created entities from 15 percent to 10 percent.
READ ALSO: Tax cuts and visas - Spain’s new law for startups, investors and digital nomads
Article by Conor Faulkner
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