Self-employment and entrepreneurship: incentives and grants

The self-employment promotion program is a nationwide program for unemployed persons. It is managed by the Autonomous Communities (regions), generally through their regional employment departments (Consejerías de Empleo), and by the State Public Employment Service (Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal) in those Autonomous Communities that have not assumed powers in this area, as well as in the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

TYPES OF GRANTS

This self-employment support program provides for 4 types of grants, adapted in each Autonomous Community:

1) Grant for setting up as a self-employed worker or on one’s own account, up to a maximum of €10,000

The amount is set by each Autonomous Community for the following groups:

– Unemployed persons in general.
– Unemployed young people aged 30 or under.
– Unemployed women.
– Unemployed persons with disabilities.
– Unemployed women with disabilities.

For women who are victims of gender-based violence, the above amounts will be increased by 10%.

As a general rule, this grant is usually conditional on the beneficiary making an investment in fixed assets or other assets of at least €5,000, excluding taxes where these are recoverable or offsettable, in the period between 3 months before the start of the activity and 6 months after that start.

In addition, these grants usually require a commitment to remain self-employed for 2 or 3 years; otherwise, they must be repaid. You should therefore bear this in mind and check this point in your Autonomous Community’s call for applications.

2) Financial subsidy

This subsidy will be equivalent to a reduction of up to 4 percentage points in the interest rate set by the public or private credit institution granting the loan, subject to a maximum subsidy of €10,000. At least 75% of the loan must be used to finance investments in fixed assets, and up to 25% may be used to finance current assets. In any event, the beneficiary must make an investment in fixed assets of no less than €5,000.

3) Grant for technical assistance

The amount of this grant will be 75% of the cost of the services provided, up to a cap of €2,000.

4) Grant for training

The amount of this grant will be 75% of the cost of the courses taken, up to a cap of €3,000.

GRANTS BY AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY

Below we set out the 2023 grants for self-employed workers in each Autonomous Community:

Andalusia

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment in Andalusia – Line 2.

• Call for applications open from August 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.

• This line of grants is aimed at persons who have started an activity and remain self-employed without interruption for 12 months, counting from the day after the application is filed.

• The amounts under this line of grants will range from €3,800 to €5,500, depending on the applicant:

Aragon

• Name: Grants for self-employed entrepreneurs.

• 2023 calls for applications (closed):

– To promote generational succession.
– Incentive for the consolidation of projects to support the continuation of self-employed activity.
– Grant to support the incorporation of self-employed collaborating family members into the family business.
– Grant for hiring the first employee.
– Financial subsidy.
– Grant for setting up as a self-employed worker.

Asturias

• Name: Grants to promote innovative entrepreneurship – Entrepreneur Voucher (Cheque Emprendedor).

• 2023 call for applications: Closed.

• The amount of the grant to be received by beneficiaries will be €10,000.

Balearic Islands

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment in order to address the demographic challenge and facilitate the productive transformation toward a green and digital economy, financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

• Call for applications closed. Open until June 30, 2023.

• Programs

– Program 1: financial grants for starting the activity, aimed at promoting the setting up, as self-employed workers, of unemployed persons registered as jobseekers, in order to facilitate the productive transformation toward a green and digital economy.

– Program 2: grants for the consolidation of new business lines and changes of activity as part of the productive transformation toward a green and digital economy.

Canary Islands

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment.

• Call for applications closed. Open until October 2, 2023.

• Beneficiaries

– The grants may be awarded to unemployed persons who are not in employment and are registered as jobseekers or as users of other services with the Canary Islands Employment Service (Servicio Canario de Empleo, SCE), when they set up as self-employed workers or on their own account in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and have registered with the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers (Régimen Especial de Trabajadores Autónomos, RETA), the Special System for Self-Employed Agricultural Workers, the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Seafarers, the relevant special scheme, or the mutual insurance society (mutualidad) of the relevant professional association, and who also meet the other requirements laid down in the Governing Rules (Bases Reguladoras) and in the generally applicable regulations.
– Applicants may be beneficiaries when they are members of joint ownership arrangements (comunidades de bienes, CB) or private civil partnerships (sociedades civiles particulares, SCP), provided that the grants are applied for in their personal capacity.
– Persons who have registered with Social Security as economically dependent self-employed workers (TRADE) may also be beneficiaries.

Cantabria

• Name: Grants to promote the creation of self-employment.

• 2023 call for applications: Open.

The application must be filed within 3 months after the feasibility report is issued, counting from the date on which that report is issued, and must be filed before registering with Social Security or the alternative scheme. The favorable feasibility report must be submitted together with the grant application.

• Amount

– €4,800 for unemployed men in general.
– €6,000 for unemployed women in general.
– €6,800 for persons with disabilities, young people under 35, or persons aged 45 or over.
– €8,000 for women who are victims of gender-based violence.

The above amounts will be increased by €500 for persons who, on the date the application is filed, meet the requirements to apply the flat-rate Social Security contribution (tarifa plana).

Catalonia

• Name: Economic and social measures for businesses and self-employed workers.

• Call for applications open.

• Beneficiaries: Businesses and self-employed workers in Catalonia that fall within the sectors targeted by the grants and measures whose application period is open.

Castilla-La Mancha

• Name: Grants to boost self-employment.

• 2023 call for applications: Closed.

• Lines of grants:

– Line 1. Grants to support the reconciliation of work, family, and personal life of self-employed workers.
– Line 2. Grants to promote generational succession.
– Line 3. Grants for the collaborating family member of the self-employed worker.
– Line 4. Grants for the first hiring of an employee on a permanent contract.

• Amount

– Line 1: maximum of €1,200 per month.
– Line 2: maximum of €6,000.
– Line 3: maximum of €3,000.
– Line 4: maximum of €9,000.

Castilla y León

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment in Castilla y León.

• 2023 call for applications: Closed.

• Beneficiaries: Individuals, including those who are members of an entity without legal personality, who set up on their own account and meet the requirements.

Extremadura

• Name: Grant for the promotion, consolidation, and modernization of self-employment.

• 2023 call for applications: OPEN: from February 15, 2023, to February 14, 2024.

• Programs:

– Program I. Grants for unemployed persons setting up as self-employed workers.
– Program II. Grants for self-employed workers who facilitate the labor market integration of a collaborating family member.
– Program III. Grants for maintaining and modernizing the self-employment activity, for self-employed workers who have been beneficiaries of the Program I grants provided for in Decree 29/2021, of April 21, or in the current decree establishing the governing rules.
– Program IV. Grants for employed persons covered by the General Social Security Scheme (Régimen General) as employees who start a business or professional activity as self-employed workers, provided that they must be covered by the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers (RETA).

Amount:

– Grant of €1,000 for beneficiaries of the Program III grants.
– Grant of €5,000 for employed persons covered by the General Scheme for employees who are beneficiaries of the Program IV grants.
– Grant of €5,000 for unemployed men set up as self-employed workers who are beneficiaries under Program I or, in the case of a collaborating family member, the person giving rise to the grant under Program II, who do not fall within any of the groups in the following paragraph.
– Grant of €7,500 for unemployed men set up as self-employed workers under Programs I and II.
– Grant of €9,000 for unemployed women set up as self-employed workers under Programs I and II.
– In addition, under Programs I and II, a grant of €1,000 that will increase the amount corresponding to applicants under any of the groups defined in paragraphs 4 and 5, except the group in paragraph 4.e), where the beneficiary, in the case of Program I, or the person giving rise to the grant, in the case of Program II, carries on their activity in a municipality with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, according to the official population figures referred to in paragraph 4.e) above.

Galicia

• Name: Siempre autónomo (Always Self-Employed). Promotion of self-employment.

• 2023 call for applications: CLOSED.

• Beneficiaries: Persons who register definitively with the special scheme for self-employed workers or any other Social Security special scheme for self-employed persons, or with the mutual insurance society of a professional association, between October 1, 2022, and September 29, 2023, both inclusive, as owners or co-owners of the business or operation.

La Rioja

• Name: Promotion of the consolidation of self-employment.

2023 call for applications: CLOSED.

• Beneficiaries: Self-employed workers who have registered with the Special Social Security Scheme for Self-Employed Workers.

• Amount:

– Self-employed workers who registered between January 1 and June 30, 2021: €1,380 or the corresponding pro rata amount.
– Self-employed workers who registered between July 1 and December 31, 2021: €540 or the corresponding pro rata amount.

Community of Madrid

• Name: Grants for workers who set up on their own account.

• 2023 call for applications: Open.

• Beneficiaries:
The grants may be awarded to unemployed persons who register as self-employed workers and whose activity starts on or after October 1, 2015.

Region of Murcia

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment.

2023 call for applications: Open.

• Amount
– €6,000: persons under 30, persons aged 45 to 54, and long-term unemployed persons aged 30 to 44.
– €8,000: persons with disabilities, persons at risk of social exclusion, victims of terrorism, recipients of the minimum living income (ingreso mínimo vital) or the minimum insertion income (renta mínima de inserción), long-term unemployed persons aged 45 to 54, and persons aged 55 or over. €9,000 if they are women.
– €7,000, in general.

Navarre

• Name: Grants to promote self-employment.

• 2023 call for applications: CLOSED.

• Procedure: The application period will be one month, counting from the day after the date of registration with the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers or the mutual insurance society of the relevant professional association, provided that the authorization of the corresponding expenditure has been published in the Official Gazette of Navarre (BON).

• Amount: Grant of a variable amount (from €2,000) depending on the personal circumstances of the person setting up as a self-employed worker.

Basque Country/Bizkaia

• Name: Promotion of entrepreneurial initiatives 2023.

• 2023 calls for applications: Open.

• Measures

– Advice on the creation and launch of business projects.
– Grants for the launch and creation of businesses.
– Grants for business transfers.
– Business consolidation.

Valencian Community

• Name: EAUTOP 2023, New Territorial Projects for Rebalancing and Equity program – entrepreneurship and micro-enterprises.

• 2023 call for applications: CLOSED.

Amount: The grant will be a lump sum of €5,000 per beneficiary.