While not the most well-known group, in Spain there are 176,793 self-employed collaborators (5.2% of the total). Their legal treatment is especially complex: the Social Security system considers them similar to a self-employed worker, while the Tax Agency treats them as an employee.
Already one of the most mistreated groups, the regularization of Social Security contributions initiated in fiscal year 2023 prevented them from contributing based on what they earn via payroll, obliging them to a minimum base of 1,000 euros and a contribution of 294 €. This fact, transferred to the three-year period established in the Royal Decree and its extensions, will represent a huge detriment to the retirement pension of those who, with their effort, contributed until 2022 for an amount greater than the minimum, in search of a decent retirement pension. The fact is that, although corporate self-employed workers were allowed to compute their income from work, the same treatment was not applied to their family members.
All of this due to an error in Royal Decree-Law 13/2022, of July 26, which establishes a new contribution system for self-employed or autonomous workers, which forgot to allow the computation of their income from work (payroll), providing only for what they declared by direct estimation (professional activities) or economic activities. As established by the IRPF (Personal Income Tax) regulations, it would not make sense to tax in this way without "the taxpayer's own organization of means of production and human resources." Nor did Order PCM/74/2023 of January 30, which established the rules for Social Security contributions in 2023, correct the error.
Double Jeopardy
But the harm that Social Security's actions have caused to self-employed collaborators does not end there. In fact, they have also been prevented from choosing the option provided for in the aforementioned Royal Decree and Regulatory Order to adhere to what they were contributing on 12/31/2022. Thus, they have been prevented from accessing the prior hearing to opt for that possibility, under the pretext that they have not declared net income. And, on the contrary, the usual thing is that they have declared net income, but as income from work, in strict compliance with tax regulations.
Thus, many self-employed family workers have been forced to file appeals, which are denied by the Social Security Administration with little explanation, and to initiate slow and cumbersome administrative appeals, with the sole purpose of fighting for a decent future retirement pension.
The paradox of the situation is especially painful: while all the regulation undertaken to regularize fees aims for the self-employed to contribute more to the pension fund, resembling an employed worker, those self-employed collaborators who have been contributing according to their income are condemned to contribute the minimum.
All of this amidst the enormous controversy surrounding the increase in fees that the Government is trying to negotiate with professional associations for the new three-year period beginning in 2026.
