In November, Social Security will begin the process of regularizing new contributions for self-employed people based on their actual income, social dialogue sources explain. This is the adjustment of the 2023 contribution, which can be settled by collection or reimbursement of money, and which results from the final earnings of workers from last year. The schedule begins in November, with several phases that will last until March or April depending on the case.
2023 was the first year in which self-employed workers began to contribute in installments based on their income (usually called “real income”), thanks to the new contribution system that the government approved during the last legislature and which is currently being implemented. gradually. For now, the quotas for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025 have been established.
Self-employed workers were to start contributing based on their expected income, for which the system allows the contribution base to be changed up to six times a year, with the aim that workers can adapt to their current situation.
However, out of a total of more than three million self-employed workers, very few have chosen to change their contributions. Only 10%. As Social Security reported this Monday, only 400,000 self-employed workers made an adjustment to their contributions, “two thirds to increase their contribution and one third to reduce it”, data unchanged since last year.
From November to April
The ministry headed by Elma Saiz communicated this Monday the planned regularization schedule to the main self-employed organizations (UATAE, ATA and UPTA), as well as to the majority unions and employers’ associations. During the meeting held this afternoon, Social Security indicated that the data has not yet been cross-checked with the tax authorities to verify what the real income of workers was, which is expected for “the coming days or weeks”, they declared. explain the sources of social dialogue.
In total, the regularization process reaches “3.7 million workers” who were registered at some point during 2023 in the self-employed system, the ministry said. “This procedure, of notable technical complexity, is developing during these months and will culminate in the first half of 2025,” added Social Security.
It is expected that in November, Social Security will inform the Approved Network of Self-Employed Workers (who interact with the organization for contribution procedures) of what the workers’ contribution should have been based on their income. It will be a first act that is only informative, to anticipate for the self-employed what the adjustment will be, although “not yet binding”, they explain from the social dialogue.
Between November and December, Social Security will formally notify the regularizations, with data on the collection or reimbursement of the money that corresponds to the self-employed worker.
First, self-employed workers will be informed that they have not changed their quota since December 2022, but that they are entitled to a reduced contribution. They will have to inform Social Security if they choose to maintain their contribution higher before January 31, 2025. Thus, this group would maintain their contribution above their actual income and would not be entitled to a reimbursement of contributions. After this group, the rest of the self-employed group will be contacted.
In the next step, between January and March 2025, Social Security plans to notify the agency’s resolution to all workers who are entitled to reimbursement of their contributions, because they contributed above their actual income.
Finally, it will end with the Social Security resolutions on claiming contributions. That is, workers are required to pay more because they contributed less than their earnings. “In March 2025, all self-employed workers will have perfectly defined the financial amounts they have overquoted or underquoted,” declared Eduardo Abad, president of UPTA after the meeting.
As Minister Elma Saiz pointed out, the regularization will end in the first quarter of 2025. “Before April 30, it is expected that all fees will have been returned,” explains Antonio García, UATAE technician.
