The Spanish government has signed a new legislation concerning the tax system applicable to natural persons who work as self-employed, which will protect the interests of this category of businessmen. The regulations are presented in the General State Budget 2019 and they aim at creating a fairer system concerning the contributions of self-employed persons to the tax system in Spain. 

 

Under the new regulations, the tax contributions will be linked with the level of income of Spanish self-employed individuals, in the sense that a lower income will benefit from lower taxes and our team of lawyers in Spain can provide in-depth information on the taxes applicable starting with 2019. 

 

 

Until the new State Budget will become applicable, self-employed persons (who are registered as sole traders) will be taxed under the current tax scheme. Some of the most common taxes that are available for Spanish sole traders are the value added tax (VAT) and the tax on income. 

 

Self-employed persons are also liable for paying the social contributions, which is completed through the Special Regime for Autonomous Workers. 

 

The payment of the personal income tax for a self-employed person has to be concluded every three months by completing the tax return named Modelo 100. Exemptions from the payment of the personal income tax are available (and the submission of the tax return is no longer required) provided that the person will declare that he or she had no business activities (and thus, no income) in the respective period. Our team of Spanish lawyers can assist with more details on the documents that have to be submitted by self-employed individuals and freelancers in Spain. 

 

 

In specific cases, the self-employed persons will also be imposed with the withholding tax on income, in the situation in which they provide the following services:

 

• professional services;

• forestry services;

• agricultural services. 

 

The standard tax rate is of 19%, but a lower tax, of only 7%, is applicable in the first two years of activity and the period can be extended with one year, if the persons are women under an age of 35 years or men with an age below 30 years. Persons who work as self-employed are invited to contact our law firm in Spain for more information concerning other taxes available for this business structure.