The Spanish government will introduce new self-employed contributions in September.

MadridThe Spanish government and social partners have begun negotiations for new contributions for self-employed workers starting next year and continuing through 2028. However, the social dialogue table has not gotten off to a good start: ATA, the self-employed workers' association within the CEOE (Spanish Economic and Social Council), did not attend. "We will not open a new chapter for 2026 until the 2023 chapter is closed," stated the president of the association, Lorenzo Amor, via social media. For ATA, it is essential to resolve the problems the new model has encountered since it came into force three years ago before discussing a new one.

Representatives from UATAE and UPTA, the other two main self-employed organizations, as well as the Spanish employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme, and the unions CCOO and UGT, did attend Monday's meeting. The meeting served as a first step toward resuming negotiations, as the Spanish government has delayed submitting a first proposal for negotiation until September. Sources from the Ministry of Social Security explain that their intention is to put a document on the table in early September.

What to negotiate?

The current contribution model for self-employed workers was negotiated in 2022 and came into effect in 2023. The change meant that self-employed workers would begin paying contributions based on their actual net income. The underlying objective was to overcome the fact that many self-employed workers chose to contribute at the lowest rate, which ultimately impacts their future social security benefits. "During the meeting, the 2022 agreement was assessed to improve confidence in the system," say Social Security sources.

That negotiation, however, resulted in a gradual implementation model for three years (from 2023 to 2025), so new income brackets (currently there are fifteen) and new contribution bases for the period 2026-2028 must now be negotiated. Currently, the first bracket includes self-employed workers with incomes below 670 euros per month, and finally, those earning more than 6,000 euros. Thus, this Monday marked the starting point for these negotiations.

Beyond the brackets and contribution bases, the social partners will use the table to discuss what can be improved in the current model and, therefore, what can be revised. In this regard, the ERC (Republican Socialist Workers' Party) has just focused on the professional expenses that the self-employed can deduct. Through a series of questions in the Congress of Deputies, the Republicans have demanded that the Spanish government clarify what self-employed workers can and cannot deduct. In the ERC's opinion, they are encountering "difficulties" when justifying common expenses such as vehicle use, electricity bills, and travel. Deductions are an important element when considering net income, which later determines the bracket under which self-employed workers must pay Social Security contributions.

Adjustment for the 2024 financial year

However, this is not the only element that has generated controversy with the new reform. The new contribution system incorporated an adjustment through which the State adapts the contributions paid by the self-employed to their actual net income. This basically involves: of an annual regularization process of self-employed contributions In this tax year, contributions and earnings declared during a fiscal year are reviewed to determine whether they have contributed above the corresponding bracket (they can request a refund because they have paid more than they should), or below the corresponding bracket, and therefore must return the required amount to Social Security. This 2025 tax year has barely been regularized in 2023.

Organizations such as ATA have pointed out the slowness of this dues regularization process. UPTA President Eduardo Abad emphasized that Monday's meeting is "late," considering that an agreement must be reached before the end of the year.