After several months of waiting, the Head of State published last month in the BOE the Law 6/2017, of October 24, of Urgent Reforms of Autonomous Work (self-employment.)  Measures that come into force the day after publication in the BOE.

• 100% bonus for self-employed workers for 12 months for the care of children under 12 years of age (previously reduced to the care of children under 7 years of age).
• 100% bonus for self-employed workers during the period of rest due to maternity, paternity, adoption, guardianship for adoption, fostering, risk during pregnancy or risk during breastfeeding. This bonus will be applicable as long as the rest period lasts at least one month.
• Self-employed workers who decide to resume in the 2 following years after the cessation of their activity by maternity, adoption, guardianship for adoption, fostering and guardianship can benefit from the flat rate of 50 euros during a period of 12 months.

Social Security contribution in cases of multiple activity.

Self-employed workers who simultaneously combine self-employment with another employee and contribute for common contingencies in a multi-activity regime shall be entitled to 50% reimbursement of the excess in which the sum of their contributions exceeds the amount established in the Budgets. General of each exercise.
The General Treasury of the Social Security will automatically pay this amount before May 1 of the following year.

Recognition of the work accident “in itinere”.

It will be understood as a work accident of the self-employed person who suffered while going to or returning from the place where the economic or professional activity was provided.

Bonus for hiring family members.

If the self-employed decides to make an indefinite contract to the spouse, ascendants, descendants and other relatives of up to the second degree of consanguinity will be entitled to a bonus in the Social Security quota for common contingencies of 100% for 12 months.

Compatibility of the performance of self-employment with the receipt of retirement pension.

If the self-employed person does not have workers under his / her responsibility, he / she will be entitled, as before, to receive 50% of the recognized retirement pension. The improvement introduced in this regard is the possibility of extending this percentage to 100% if it is proven that at least one employee has been hired.

Measures to improve the contribution of certain self-employed workers.

The SSD payments by Company administrator (Autonomos) will no longer be linked to the Interprofessional Minimum Wage and will now be determined in the General State Budgets for each year. Measures that take effect from January 1, 2018

Registrations and cancellations of the self-employed person in the Social Security System.

The self-employed workers may make up to a maximum of three registrations and cancelations per year and only pay for the days actually worked. Until now, it was necessary to pay the whole month but with the new modification only the days that really are discharged will be paid, taking into account for it the starting date and finalization day of the activity.

Possibility of changing the contribution base.

It rises from 2 to 4 the number of times a year in which the self-employed can change the contribution base. The dates contemplated for the changes are:

• April 1, if the request is made between January 1 and March 31.
• July 1, if the request is made between April 1 and June 30.
• October 1, if the request is made between July 1 and September 30.
• January 1 of the following year, if the request is made between October 1 and December 31.

Reduction of administrative penalties for late payments

The surcharges for the delay in the payment of Social Security contributions will be reduced during the following first month after the due date from 20% to 10%.

Payments that occur from the second month of expiration, will continue with the surcharge of 20% of the debt.

Flat rate extension.

The duration of the flat rate of 50€ per month is extended from 6 to 12 months. Likewise, the period that a worker must be unquoted in the RETA to be able to benefit from this flat rate will be reduce from 5 to 2 years.

In the case of workers who restart their activity as self-employed and who have enjoyed the flat rate in their previous period of registration, the term to benefit from the rate will be 3 years instead of 2.

After one year, and until completing a total period of 24 months, the self-employed will also be able to enjoy a rate bonus: 50% for 6 months and 30% for another 6 months.

In the event that the worker is under 30 years (in the case of men) or 35 years (in the case of women) and has an initial registration or would not have been registered in the previous 2 years (before 5 years), he/she may add to the previous bonuses and reductions an additional bonus equivalent to 30% on the quota for common contingencies. This bonus would be applied in the following 12 months, thus extending the total bonus period to 36 months.

Deduction of living expenses and per diem payments, From January 2018.

Self-employed workers may deduct the following expenses:

• In the cases in which the worker uses part of his / her habitual residence for the development of the economic activity, he / she will be able to deduct the expenses of supply of said dwelling such as water, gas, electricity, telephony and Internet. This deduction will be made in the percentage resulting from applying 30% to the existing proportion between the square meters of the home intended for the activity with respect to its total area, unless a higher or lower percentage is approved.
• Meals would be possible to be deducted as expenses as long as they take place in a restaurant and were paid using any electronic means. The deductible amount will have a daily limit equal to that established for employees: € 26.67 if the expense occurs in Spain and € 48.08 if it is abroad.

In addition to these and other improvement measures, the BOE includes several additional provisions in which it is reported that it will proceed to the determination of aspects such as:

• The concept of habituability for the purpose of incorporating workers into the Special Regime for Autonomous Workers (RETA), paying special attention to those whose full earnings do not exceed the amount of the Interprofessional Minimum Wage.
• The possibility of implementing a part-time contribution system for self-employed workers.
• Access to the partial retirement of the self-employed, including the possibility of partially or full-time hiring a new worker to guarantee the generational change in the cases of self-employed workers.