This is how self-employed workers' Social Security contributions will look in 2022

With the start of the new year, self-employed workers will experience a series of changes that have been pending for more than a year and that will affect both their Social Security contributions and the contribution bases on which those payments are calculated.

All of this is set out in the General State Budget (Presupuestos Generales del Estado) for 2022. The section on social contributions specifies that self-employed workers will have new Social Security contribution rates, as well as new minimum and maximum contribution bases, which are the amounts to which those rates are applied.

Specifically, in the Budget the Government provides for an increase in self-employed workers' contribution rate from 30.3% to 30.6%, as a result of the increase in the items for occupational contingencies (from 1.1% to 1.3%) and for vocational training (from 0.8% to 0.9%). Contributions for common contingencies and for cessation of activity will remain unchanged, at 28.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

As regards contribution bases, the Government will increase the minimum base, which will rise from €944.40 to €960.60 per month. The maximum base, for its part, will increase from €4,070.10 to €4,139.40 per month. All self-employed workers may choose any base between these amounts in the four changes of base to which they are entitled each year.

Restrictions on self-employed workers' contribution bases upon reaching a certain age

• Self-employed workers who are 47 years old at the start of 2022 and whose contribution base in December 2021 was below €2,077.80 may only choose bases between the minimum base and €2,113.20 per month, unless they exercise the option to do otherwise before June 30, or if they are the surviving spouse of the business owner who has died and have been required, as a result, to register with the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers (Régimen Especial de Trabajadores Autónomos, RETA).

• Self-employed workers who are 48 years old at the start of 2022 must choose a contribution base between €1,035.90 and €2,113.20 per month. If they are the surviving spouse of the business owner who has died and, as a result, have been required to register at the age of 45 or older, these bases will range between €960.60 and €2,113.20 per month.

• Self-employed workers who, before the age of 50, have contributed for at least five years under any Social Security scheme and whose last contribution base is equal to or below €2,077.80 will have a base between €960.60 and €2,113.20 per month. Conversely, if their last contribution base is above €2,077.80, they may choose any base between €960.60 and that base increased by 1.70%, subject to the limit of the maximum contribution base.

Self-Employed Workers with Multiple Jobs

Self-employed workers who are also employed by a third party and who contribute under the multiple-activity rules (pluriactividad) during 2022 will be entitled to a refund of 50% of the contributions exceeding €13,822.06. For this calculation, the contributions paid under the applicable General Scheme (Régimen General) and under the self-employed scheme will be taken into account, provided always that this amount does not exceed 50% of the amounts paid as a self-employed worker for common contingencies.

In these cases, the General Social Security Treasury (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social) will pay the refund before May 1 of the following year, provided that no request is made for additional information, which would postpone the payment.

Self-Employed Workers with Employees

If you are a self-employed worker, contributing as such, and had at least 10 employees during 2021 (at some point; this need not have been throughout the whole year), your minimum contribution base from January 1, 2022 will be €1,234.80 per month

This base will also apply from January 1, 2022 to:

• Self-employed workers included in the Special Agricultural Scheme (Régimen Especial Agrario)

• Directors or Chief Executive Officers (consejeros delegados) who hold more than 50% of the company and provide services to it.

• Working partners of worker-owned companies (sociedades laborales) holding 50% of the share capital (the holdings of their spouse or of relatives up to the second degree who live with them will be aggregated for this purpose)

• The exception to the above points is where the self-employed worker has registered for the first time, during the first 12 months of activity.