The Government has proposed to social agents that in 2026 the contributions of the self-employed be between 200 euros and 605 euros per month depending on the different income categories. The Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, raised these amounts on Monday after being forced to rectify her initial approach – which proposed fees of between 217 and 796 euros per month – upon receiving a barrage of criticism from both the professional groups of the self-employed, the main unions and left- and right-wing parties. The Executive, however, based its initial calculation on the development of the system that was established in 2022 through a royal decree which was widely endorsed by the Congress of Deputies with 260 yeses, some of them from parties such as the PP, which have now launched themselves into harshly criticizing the updating of quotas by Social Security.
This text came out of an agreement reached under the mandate of José Luis Escrivá so that the self-employed could finally pay contributions for their earnings, with a transition period of ten years, until 2032. In addition to the vote in favor of the PSOE, this document received the support of both Unidas Podemos – some of whose members are now from Sumar – and the PP, PNV, and other nationalist forces. Only Vox, Ciudadanos, UPN and Foro opposed it. And EH Bildu as well as ERC abstained. In the debate that then took place in Congress, the groups that supported the validation of the royal decree highlighted that the text had been agreed upon with the social agents and shared the objective of the norm promoted at the time by José Luis Escrivá, then Minister of Social Security and now Governor of the Bank of Spain: to try to bring contributions closer to the real income of the self-employed and equate them to those of the rest of the workers.
Many of the groups took advantage of their intervention in the Plenary to warn, however, that the decree did establish a calculation system, but only specified the tables of income and contributions for three years, that is, until the end of 2025. They thus predicted the debate that is taking place in recent days when the Government has tried to specify the forms of calculation and the quotas for the coming years. The 2022 text itself indicated that “before January 1, 2026, the Government (…) will determine the calendar for the application of the new contribution system based on real income, which will contemplate the deployment of the scale of income brackets and contribution bases throughout the following period, with a maximum of six years.”
The same PP that now speaks of “fiscal sabotage” due to the increase in contributions or that accuses the Government of wanting to use the self-employed “to pay for nonsense” or “prostitutes” three years ago unequivocally supported the agreement on which the Executive is now based and which established by law that “the average contribution bases of the Special Social Security Regime for Self-Employed or Self-Employed Workers will experience growth at least similar to the averages of the General Regime” on an annual basis.
The PP said it was their demand and Unidas Podemos defined it as “a big step”
“The Popular Party votes yes because it was a demand of ours in the negotiation of the Toledo Pact, it votes yes because the social dialogue has agreed, it votes yes because we have managed to have it processed as a bill to continue improving this project and it votes yes because we have once again managed to get the Government to rectify it,” said PP deputy Tomás Cabezón during that plenary session on August 25, 2022, who in addition to defending the royal decree that three years After trying to develop the current Executive, he took credit for having gotten the then Government to lower the contributions initially proposed.
The text was also assumed by the left. “I am extremely happy about this modification of the special regime for the self-employed. I think it is a great step that this Government takes by modifying it, by making a more fair regime with more guarantees and we must continue moving forward, because today we have shown that this Government believes in the self-employed, takes it seriously and has come to guarantee their rights,” said Unidas Podemos deputy Isabel Franco. “We note and applaud that there is a change in contributions. We will see if it happens in the system,” added, with nuances, the ERC deputy Joan Capdevila, whose party also facilitated the validation of the decree with its abstention.
The interveners, however, already warned that now, at the end of 2025, a new discussion could take place between administrations and professional organizations and unions when having to establish the new quotas and sections once the three years that were specifically regulated in the decree have passed. “Its reform is long-term, but it only includes the measures of the first phase,” warned the PP deputy. “What do you have planned for the second phase, Mr. Minister?” Cabezón asked the then Minister Escrivá directly. “What will happen if there is no agreement after 2026? This is something we will have to talk about,” he acknowledged.
Oskar Matute, from EH Bildu, a group that abstained, also reproached the Government that in the 2022 decree there were “elements postponed for the future” and specifically mentioned 2025, the date on which the new quotas must be decided. From the PNV, Iñigo Barandiaran, who announced his group's support for the validation of the decree, assured that what was being debated was “a good law” among other reasons “because it is the product of the social agreement and the agreement with the self-employed.” “But be careful with its future development, which must be equitable. Remember (he told the minister) that the future of the system lies in its income, but it is also the guarantee of the principles of solidarity and contribution and, therefore, in the nexus that this must have with its tax treatment,” he added.
Consensus and social dialogue
In his speech, Escrivá defended the reform, but did not refer to what could happen in 2025, when the Government had to approve the new contributions as it has been proposing in recent days. “This is a structural reform that makes the contribution system for self-employed workers more fair, flexible and equitable and that modernizes and improves the protective action of Social Security towards this group,” he noted, adding: “The change in this model aligns the benefits with the contributory effort and makes the protection model for self-employed workers more comparable to those of the general regime.”
Without mentioning future development, the minister considered that the reform implied “visible and immediate improvements for self-employed workers, but above all it will mean a before and after in their relationship with Social Security. It is a turning point that will allow not only to improve the protective action on this group of workers, but it will also do so because it will increase the equity of the system, its flexibility and its sustainability. And above all it is a reform that provides stability, that is established in consensus and dialogue, (…) and in agreement with the social partners and representatives of self-employed workers.” Three years later, the Government is trying to recover that consensus after the first blow this week that Social Security had to rectify its first proposal.