• The Government reviews the quotas of the self-employed until 2025 with quotas between 294 and 590 euros

The main association of self-employed workers in Spain,

ATA

, has criticized this Thursday that the Ministry of Social Security is negotiating with the European Commission within the framework of the pension reform

an

increase

in the social contributions

paid by the self-employed from

2026

that

it has not been agreed

with the associations and that

the future Government will have to undertake.

"

Minister Escrivá once again tells Brussels something that is not true

, because it is a commitment that he acquires with Brussels and that

is neither agreed nor agreed

. In the reform of the Self-Employed Workers Regime (RETA), the only thing that is agreed is the contributions of the self-employed in 2023, 2024 and 2025, whose impact will be neutral. According to the agreement,

the Government, with the Pact of Toledo and the social agents will carry out an analysis of the situation of the system in 2026

and will make decisions then", has reproached

Lorenzo Amor

, president of ATA, in an interview on

Telemadrid

.

In his opinion, it is "pathetic" that with elections and when the country is going to have

a new government and also a new Pact of Toledo

-since this congressional commission is made up of elected deputies-, "the minister says that we are going to enter

6,000 million

euros when we don't even know how the quotas will evolve", since the commitment is that they will be "reviewed in depth and seriously" in 2026.

"Escrivá does his boss a disservice by selling

three million voters, who are the self-employed, who are going to raise their quota by 50%

," he said in reference to the president, Pedro Sánchez, before the general elections were held. in November.

His statements came after

El País

announced this Thursday that the Government is negotiating with

Brussels

a

commitment that in the year 2026,

when the current RETA reform that was agreed with the most representative associations of the collective is finished,

Social contributions will be modified again

to resemble those of wage earners, which will result in an

increase in income of some 6,000 million euros per year

, the equivalent of

0.5% of GDP.

This means, in practice, promising the European Commission that

the next government

, whatever the sign, will have to approve this measure.

The Ministry denies it

The Ministry of Social Security, however,

has denied that this information is true

and has stated that it is not negotiating with Brussels a new increase in quotas.

"It is absolutely false that the government proposes an increase in contributions for the self-employed.

The measures included in the pension reform related to the self-employed have already been approved with the consensus of all the associations and there

are no additional measures

. An increase is expected of the income from contributions of this group, but

in no case due to raising the contributions

, but rather due to improvements in competitiveness, broadening of bases (increase in the number of people working), employment improvements... The self-employed reform is complete and a system is being launched fairer that lowers the quotas for those who earn the least and better protects the entire group," sources from Escrivá's team have stated.

If there is an increase in Social Security income, it will be, according to his calculations, due to the improvement in employment, the emergence of the underground economy and the already approved and agreed system, but not because new quota increases are going to be approved, they assure.

The possibility of raising the quotas had been addressed in the framework of the negotiations for the

second part of the pension reform

, which should have been approved before December 31, 2022 and is still stuck.

This second leg is the most difficult for the Executive branch to approve, since in the face of a

first reform

that ensured

sufficiency

and implied more expenses (by shielding the revaluation with the CPI), now a part is needed to counteract it and ensure

sustainability

, or with fewer expenses -if the computation period is modified and earlier years of working life are included- or with more income.

Given the difficulty that the Ministry of Social Security has to carry out measures on the side of reducing expenses -despite the fact that Brussels requests them-, it is focusing on the part of guaranteeing more income, hence one of its priorities is

to

obtain more contributions from

the self-employed

, which traditionally have been much lower than those of employees because they had the option of choosing their base and, in most cases, they opted for the minimum.

Despite the fact that increasing the contributions will mean greater benefits for the self-employed and more spending for the system in the future, the reform will make it possible

to increase income at a fundamental moment to contain the increase in spending derived from

babyboom

benefits

.

When that tension on the spending side passes, already in the future, the time will come to disburse higher pensions for those self-employed workers.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • European Comission

  • Social Security

  • Pedro Sanchez

  • GDP

  • self employed

  • Jose Luis Escriva

  • Articles Alejandra Olcese