Key aspects of RDL 13/2022, of July 26, new contribution system for self-employed workers and CATA improvement

Royal Decree-Law 13/2022, of July 26, which establishes a new contribution system for self-employed or self-employed workers and improves protection for cessation of activity

This reform establishes, for the next three years, a system of fifteen sections that determines the contribution bases and quotas based on the net income of the self-employed worker.

This standard will come into force as of January 1, 2023 and will continue to be implemented gradually over a maximum period of 9 years, with periodic reviews of three years, with the implementation period initially agreed between 2023 and 2025.

The decree defines the concept of net income, which must be calculated by deducting from the income all the expenses that have been generated during the exercise of the activity and that are necessary to obtain income for the self-employed person.

Monthly installmentsof Social Security for self-employed people with low incomes will be reduced a 30% with respect to the current one. Self-employed workers with earnings below the minimum interprofessional wage will have the option of choosing a contribution base within a reduced table provided for them.

In any case, the bases chosen will have provisional nature, until its regularization is carried out based on the annual income obtained and communicated by the corresponding Tax Administration from the following year with respect to each self-employed person.

Once the corresponding fiscal year has ended and the final annual net returns are known,will regularize the actual contributions, being able to claim or return contributions to the TGSS in the event that the returns do not correspond to the forecasts that have been made during the year. In the event that once the regularization has been submitted, the self-employed person has the right to a refund, the TGSS will be the one to regularize it ex officio before April 30 of the year following the one in which the corresponding Tax Administration has communicated the computable income to the General Treasury of Social Security.

On the contrary, if the provisional contribution made is lower than the quota corresponding to the minimum contribution base of the section in which their income is included: the self-employed person must pay the difference between both contributions until the last day of the month following the month in which they are notified of the result of the regularization, without application of late payment interest or any surcharge to be paid within that period.

As for the protection improvements, the modalities of the cessation of activity to improve coverage of different contingencies, and the protection provided to salaried workers by the RED mechanism established in the labor reform is adapted to self-employed workers.

Self-employed workers who, as of January 1, 2023, are registered with the RETA (or the RETM) must communicate by electronic media to the General Treasury of Social Security, before October 31, 2023, the data related in paragraphs 1 to 8 of article 30.2.b) of the General Regulation on company registration and affiliation, registrations, cancellations and variations of data of workers in Social Security.

Another novelty that we find in this RDL is the elimination of the current restrictions associated with age for the contributions of people who are registered in the RETA. With this new model, self-employed people aged 47 or over will be able to increase their contribution base in the last stage of their working life as long as their income increases.

News that will begin to apply on January 1, 2023:

Available contribution sections (fifteen):