New self-employment social security quota system

The Spanish government approved a new social security quota system for self-employed workers, which will be in place from January 2023 and will calculate what to pay depending on net income. It has received the support of workers, companies, and freelancers’ unions.

The new law establishes 15 quotas depending on net income. The government expects the transition to the new system to take less than nine years to complete. 

The legislation will allow "flexibility," as Spanish social security minister José Luís Escrivá said during a press conference on Tuesday after the council of ministers in which the law was greenlighted.

"The law will give a lot of possibilities to self-employed workers to change from one quota to another," he explained before adding "it will allow them to adapt the taxes they pay to their professional life of that moment." 

With the new system in place, social security for self-employed workers will range from €230 to €500 in 2023, while in 2025, they will have to pay between €200 and €590 per month.

The executive believes that self-employed workers with lower incomes will see a 30% reduction in their costs.

In fact, the new bill will mainly benefit women and young people, as 70% of them have a net income below minimum wage.

To calculate which quota workers will have to pay, officials will take into account net incomes after disregarding costs linked to the professional activity and those that are necessary to get the production done.

To the amount, authorities will deduct another 7% on generic costs. The result will be the full net income and will be the figure used to calculate the social security self-employed workers will pay.

In one year, workers will get to change their quota up to six times depending on their expected income. At the end of the financial year, they will have to regulate all changes and pay or receive any economic differences.