How to Become Self-Employed in Spain?

Do you want to work in Spain as a freelancer? Do you know what to do in order to become an ‘Autónomo’ (self-employed) in Spain? You can start a small business in Spain by becoming self-employed, but for that it is necessary to fulfill a series of formalities. In this post we will tell you what those procedures are, and we will give you advice that can help you optimize your activity as a freelancer.

Steps to register as self-employed in Spain 

The steps to follow in order to register as a self-employed worker in Spain are as follows:

• First,  you will have to go to the General Treasury of Social Security to get a Social Security affiliation number. You must also register in the special regime for self-employed workers. This procedure can be done through the Social Security website in the section “alta en trabajo autónomo” (registration in self-employment).

At the time of the registration, you must state the managing entity or mutual that you choose to cover the risk of occupational disease or occupational accident. You can find all the information on the website of the Asociación de Mutuas de Accidentes de Trabajo (AMAT).

• The next step is to go to the Tax Agency and register in the census of entrepreneurs. For this procedure, you shall use form 036 of census declaration or form 037 if you are a person who has been assigned a NIF and who doesn’t act through a representative, whose address is the same one as that of the administrative management address, you are not a large company and you are not a distance seller.

In this procedure you must include the heading of the Economic Activities Tax that corresponds to your activity as self-employed. In this table you can consult the list of activities.

• If you are going to carry out operations with another country of the European Union, you must register in the Intra-Community Operators Registry (ROI).

Tips when registering as a freelancer in Spain

In order to correctly carry out all the procedures that we have detailed before and to know the obligations that you will have as a self-employed person, we advise you to: 

• Analyze the contribution bases for the self-employed in Spain. In 2022 the minimum base is 960.60 euros per month and the maximum 4,139.40 euros per month. You can check it on the Social Security website. It is important for you to know that the contribution system for the self-employed is going to change from a system in which each self-employed person chooses his/her contribution base within the maximum and minimum bases, to a system in which contributions are made according to the real income of each member.
• Ask a business consultancy specialized in procedures for freelancers and companies for help. If you do so, you will be able to focus on your business while a team of professional experts in taxation and accounting optimizes the accounting and tax aspects of your company.
• Know the bonuses that could be applied to your monthly self-employed fee. If you meet a series of requirements, you will be able to apply a discount to the self-employed fee that you have to pay. For example, if you are registering for the first time as self-employed, you can pay a fee of 60 euros per month for 12 months after the registration to cover common and professional contingencies.
• Know what taxes you will have to pay. In general, if you are self-employed, you have to pay the Value Added Tax with form 303 in the months of January, April, July and October, and the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) on income derived from economic activity (the declaration can be annual or quarterly by direct estimation – form 130 – or objective estimation – the so-called modules or form 131).
• Be clear about which expenses are deductible. The expenses that you will be able to deduct as self-employed will depend on the activity that you develop. In general, they are the following: the self-employed fees that you pay monthly, the insurances related to the activity, the rent that you pay for the offices or premises, the expenses of the business consultant that you hire to do the accounting and the elaboration and presentation of taxes, the telephone and the office material, among others.
• Aid to the self-employed. The self-employed in Spain benefit from various aids such as reductions and bonuses in Social Security, bonuses for the reconciliation of professional and family life linked to hiring, ICO aid or aid from each autonomous community. You can consult them on the SEPE website.

In short, becoming an ‘autónomo’ in Spain is a good option if you are going to have a small business and want to be self-employed. In order for you to start the activity, you will have to either carry out the formalities we have detailed above yourself, or hire the services of a business consultancy. Hiring a specialized agency will help you get things done faster and with no mistakes on the way.

Title: How to Become Self-Employed (Autónomo) in Spain
Metatitle: Are you starting a new business? Do you want to work freelance? In this post we will tell you all you need to know about how to become self-employed in Spain.