Escrivá places the minimum fee at 202 euros and raises some erte for the self-employed

The Ministry of Social Security has presented a new proposal to reform the contribution system for self-employed, which places the minimum fee at 202 euros per month, the maximum at 1,123 euros and creates a triple figure of protection similar to the ertes and which aims to cover self-employed workers during falls of more than 50% of their income, according to sources familiar with the meeting explain. Two weeks ago, José Luís Escrivá modified his offer and lowered the amount of the maximum installments to try to bring ATA, the organization linked to the CEOE. And this Monday he has moved again to try to pull cables towards the entities linked to the unions, upta and uataewith reductions in the quotas for those self-employed workers with incomes slightly above the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI). However, at the moment he does not have the support of one or the other tied.

Escrivá tries to draw the balances in which to unite all the positions and for that it is rebalancing the amounts of the quotas that the self-employed workers will have to pay once the new contribution system is fully in force based on the “actual income“And it is that this scheme by sections proposed by the Government is based on the following premise: the fee paid by the self-employed depends on the sum of how much income from work they have and how many expenses derived from that work can be deducted. To make a approximation of what their net income would be.In this sense, Escrivá proposes that the result of this equation the self-employed natural persons can deduct the 7% of your net returns for current expenses. A kind of ‘piggy bank’ for contingencies. This percentage would drop to 3% for companies.

Added to these corrective factors are changes in quotas. The minimum started at 184 euros, then it rose to 214 and now Social Security has lowered it to 204 euros. From organizations like Uatae they are still suspicious of those 20 euros of increase that the last offer retains. This also proposes a reduction of the quotas of the intermediate sections. Those who have net returns between 1,125 and 1,300 euros will pay 290 euros (previously it was 316 euros). And for the income bracket between 1,300 and 1,500 euros, the fee drops from 391 to 382 euros, according to social dialogue sources. There is also an increase for the self-employed with higher incomes and a section of the upper part is recovered: whoever has monthly returns above 3,620 euros must pay a fee of 1,123 euros. “It greatly reduces the contribution of more than 1.3 million self-employed. […] We are much closer to an agreement”, the president of Upta, Edward Abbot.

All this is not definitive, it is still the subject of negotiation and will have to undergo changes if the Government wants to approve it with the consensus of the social dialogue. “It’s a setback. […] in each new meeting we have there is a stumbling block. The Government is still determined to lead thousands of self-employed to economic suicide”, said the president of ATA, lorenzo love. From the entity linked to CEOE they recognize that with the new system 1.4 million will pay “slightly less”, but they denounce that “more than a million will receive an ax blow”. Government estimates are that two out of three self-employed will pay the same as now or less. One of the points that generates the most opposition in ATA is the treatment of self-employed companies and family members. These must pay a minimum fee of 290 euros, regardless of whether they have performance corresponding to lower tranches.

Cyclical, structural and force majeure ‘ertes’

In the same way that a new range of ertes was approved in the labor reform to give protection to employees, Escrivá intends to replicate this philosophy for self-employed workers. According to his negotiators they have put on the table this Monday, there will be three types of protection mechanism: in case of cyclical crises, structural crises and force majeure. In the former, following in the footsteps of the ertes, the self-employed will be able to access a special benefit for cessation of activity when they prove a drop in net income of more than 50%. One of the requirements to access this help is that the self-employed who have employees must have a cyclical ert registered for them. According to sources familiar with the talks, the amount of said benefit would be 50% of the minimum base and would allow the installment to be stopped during the collection period.

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Another modality proposed by the Social Security are the benefits in case of structural crisis, with facilities to capitalize the accumulated right to cease activity and linked to training actions to relocate in other sectors or specialties. Said benefit would be coupled with a 60% quota exemption while the structural need lasted. These two mechanisms are pending refinement between the Government and the social agents, especially the part of their activation conditions.

To this pair similar to the cyclical and structural ertes, a third is added: the benefits in case of overwhelming force. These would be invoked in the event that the self-employed person sees his business diminished or interrupted as a result of administrative decisions or natural disasters (such as the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja in La Palma). In this case, the drop in net income should be greater than 50% and would give the right to collect a special benefit for cessation of activity compatible with the same activity and with fee exemption.