Congress validates the new real income contribution system for the self-employed with 260 votes in favor

MADRID, 25 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Congress of Deputies has validated this Thursday the decree of the new contribution system for real income for the self-employed, approved on July 26 in the Council of Ministers, after months of negotiation between the Government, the social agents and the main representatives of the self-employed

The decree has had 260 votes in favor, 64 against and 25 abstentions, as reported by the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, after the vote. The Royal Decree-Law will be processed as a bill by urgent procedure, with 348 votes in favor, one against and no abstentions.

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, has defended this before Congress that the reform of the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) will implement a "more fair, flexible and equitable" contribution system for self-employed workers own.

During the fixing of positions, the PP deputy, Tomás Cabezón Casas, has maintained that his group would say yes to the decree, as he announced on Wednesday, although he has warned that it must be "the starting point to continue improving." For this reason, the popular have requested its processing as a bill.

From the PSOE, the deputy Mercé Perea has urged the rest of the parliamentarians to support the decree and has alleged "many reasons to vote in favor", since it is "fair" and complies with the recommendations of the Toledo Pact and with the commitments made with Brussels in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).

The deputy Isabel Franco, from United We Can, has also expressed her group's support for the validation of the decree and has thanked the Executive for "taking seriously" the situation of the self-employed and their "courage to modify a regime like the self-employed, absolutely obsolete".

EAJ-PNV has established the same position regarding the decree, which "responds to some agreements and content that must be protected by the Chamber", as Íñigo Barandiaran has said.

Among the abstentions have been Bildu, considering that "it does not solve some of the underlying problems", as deputy Oskar Matute has pointed out, or the BNG for whom the modification maintains tax inequity.

Vox and Ciudadanos have expressed their rejection of the decree. In the case of Vox, the deputy Inés Cañizares has described the new contribution system for real income as "an attack on the freedom of the self-employed" and has accused the Government of wanting to increase collection through this route and of going to " the hunt for the self-employed".

"We agree that the self-employed must be protected, but they must be protected from you," Cañizares explained.

For her part, the deputy María Muñoz, from Ciudadanos, has disgraced Escrivá that the reform of the RETA has been made by decree and not as a bill, as the minister promised with the orange formation, according to Muñoz.

"Now it will be the State that will dictate the basis for the contribution to Social Security and not the self-employed person (...). They take away at a stroke the freedom of choice that self-employment has to decide how to save or reinvest," he said. Munoz.

At the end of July, the Council of Ministers approved the new contribution system for the self-employed based on real income, which will have a transition period of nine years, until 2032, and will begin to be applied from January 2023, with 15 installments of quotas which will range from 230 euros to 500 euros and will vary until 2025, depending on the net income of self-employed workers.

The Ministry, the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), the Union of Professionals and Self-Employed Workers (UPTA) and the Union of Associations of Self-Employed Workers and Entrepreneurs (Uatae) agreed on a system of 15 sections for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The self-employed will have the possibility of changing sections every two months, with a total of six changes per year, to adapt their contribution to the income forecasts at each time of the year and their professional activity.

The flat rate of the current RETA is also integrated into the new model, although it will be called a reduced rate for self-employed workers who start their activity and it will be 80 euros per month for twelve months for all new self-employed workers.

After that period, this reduced quota will only be extended for the self-employed who have not managed to get their income off the ground and remain below the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI). For the rest, the fee corresponding to their contribution bracket will be applied according to their net income.

Likewise, the new contribution system for real income expands benefits for the group, with the incorporation of sectoral and cyclical RED mechanisms, and it will no longer be necessary to completely close the business to access benefits, as the minister pointed out.