Sumar wants the self-employed who earn more income to also pay the solidarity fee

MADRID 6 Oct. () –

Sumar has proposed extending the solidarity fee to the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA), so that self-employed workers who obtain net income higher than the maximum contribution base pay the fee in the same way as employed workers.

This solidarity fee was approved in March of this year and represents an additional contribution for income that exceeds the maximum annual contribution base, established at 4,720.5 euros per month for the year 2024. The fee will begin to apply from 2025.

In the case of the self-employed, the plurinational group has proposed in a non-legal proposal that will be debated in the Labor Commission that said quota be applied to people who obtain income above 6,000 euros per month, whose maximum contribution base is of 4,495.5 euros.

The plurinational group also wants to equate the contribution bases of the highest brackets of self-employed workers with their real income, without exhausting the transitional period planned for these new income brackets.

And, the group explains, in the previous contribution system based on the free choice of the base, many people contributed at the minimum regardless of their income, thus generating a financing deficit for the system and “underprotection” for the autonomous.

SELF-EMPLOYED PENSIONS HAVE 66% LOWER

One of the consequences of contributing with the minimum base, for example, is that the average retirement pension for self-employed people is 962.78 euros, while for employed people the figure reaches 1,600.85 euros, a 66.27% more.

This is why the group, also in accordance with the recommendations of the Toledo Pact, considers it necessary to adjust, with more precision, the relationship between the real salary and the contribution bases, as well as the need to raise the maximum contribution ceiling and the maximum pension.

Finally, as the new self-employed contribution system benefits the lowest incomes the most, Sumar wants to reduce the transition period for the implementation of the new contribution system based on real income as much as possible, especially in those sections with net returns lower than the SMI.