Registering as self-employed in Spain, step by step

Registering as an autónomo, a self-employed person, is not one procedure: it is two, with two administrations that do not talk to each other. The tax office wants to know what you are going to do and which taxes apply to you; Social Security wants to know from when you contribute and on what base. They are done separately, with different documents, and the decisions taken on those two forms shape the following years. This guide goes through them in the order in which they have to be taken.

The two offices, and why in this order

	Tax office	Social Security
What is done	Registration on the census of businesses, professionals and withholders	Registration in the RETA, the special social security scheme for the self-employed
With what	Modelo 036	Application to join the RETA, on the Social Security electronic site
What it decides	Activity heading, periodic obligations, VAT and income tax regime	Contribution base, cover, mutual insurer and monthly contribution
When	Before the activity starts	Before it starts, and it can be requested in advance

The usual order is the tax office first and Social Security second, because the tax registration fixes the activity and the heading that the Tesorería, the Social Security treasury, will want to know. It is not an order imposed by law, but it saves a round trip. What the law does impose is that both registrations are made before you start working, not on the day you are paid your first invoice.

Step 1: Modelo 036

The 036 is long because it serves many purposes; for an initial registration four blocks are filled in and almost all the others are left blank.

1. Identification and reason for filing. Registration on the census, with personal details and the tax address. If you work from home, that is your place of business, and it has to be declared.
2. Economic activity. The IAE heading (the business activity classification) and the start date. It is the most important decision on the form and has its own guide in how to choose yours.
3. VAT. The applicable regime, the obligation to file Modelo 303 or the status of exempt activity, and registration on the ROI, the register of intra-EU operators, if you are going to trade with the European Union, which is explained in registering on the ROI.
4. Income tax. The method for working out the profit (simplified direct assessment, normal direct assessment or the objective method known as módulos) and the obligation to make payments on account on Modelo 130.

It is filed on the tax agency's electronic site with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, the Spanish public administration's login system. If you do not yet have a certificate, getting one is the first real step of the whole process: without it, every later procedure turns into an in-person appointment.

Step 2: joining the RETA

Registration with Social Security is requested on its electronic site and can be applied for ahead of the start of the activity, within the number of calendar days the rules allow. Few details are asked for, and two of them commit money:

• The forecast of net earnings for the year, which sets the bracket and the contribution base. It is not a declaration binding forever: it can be changed several times a year, and it is reconciled at the end. This is covered in contributions based on real earnings.
• The mutua colaboradora, the mutual insurer that will cover work-related contingencies and temporary incapacity. You choose one and keep it for a minimum period before you can change.
• The activity and the heading, which must match what was declared to the tax office.
• The application for the reduced contribution, if you are entitled to it: this is the flat rate, €86 a month in the first year, and it has to be requested at this point.

The decisions that stay locked in for years

Decision	How long it binds	Why it matters
IAE heading	Until changed on a 036	It determines whether your clients withhold tax, which expenses fit and whether you can use módulos
Income tax assessment method	Generally three years if you opt out of módulos	Opting out of the objective method has multi-year effects
Reduced contribution	The first year, with an extension into the second subject to conditions	And, if you use it, it tightens the no-previous-registration requirement for any future occasion
Mutual insurer	Minimum period before you can change	It is who looks after you during sick leave

None of these decisions is irreversible, but all of them have a cost of change. Taking them with the information in hand is cheaper than correcting them later, which is why we do not recommend dashing off the registration in twenty minutes on a Friday afternoon.

The registration date: why the day matters

The date you enter has consequences on both sides, and not always in the same direction. At Social Security, contributions are due from the day of registration, with the monthly amount prorated by the days of the month: registering on the 2nd rather than the 28th means twenty-six days of contributions. At the tax office, the start date marks when your periodic obligations begin and from when you can deduct business expenses.

Two practical rules follow which seem to contradict each other and have to be reconciled:

• Do not register early without need. Every day registered costs contributions, even if you invoice nothing.
• Do not put it off either. Expenses before registration (buying equipment, the domain name, earlier training) are much harder to deduct, and working without being registered has its own consequences under employment law.

The balance point is usually to register when the activity genuinely begins, meaning the moment you offer your services on the market, and not when you are paid your first invoice. If there are significant investments beforehand, it is worth talking about them first: there is a specific route for acquisitions made before the start of the activity, and it is not something to improvise.

What to do in the first week, beyond registering

1. A digital certificate, if you did not have one. Without it there is no electronic site.
2. Voluntary sign-up to electronic notifications. Individuals are not usually obliged to, but finding out late about a request costs more than checking a mailbox. How the deadlines are counted, which has its catch, is in how deadlines are really counted.
3. A separate bank account. It is not compulsory, and it is the difference between being able to justify an expense and not being able to.
4. Record books from the first invoice. Income, expenses and capital goods.
5. An invoicing system meeting the current requirements for consecutive numbering and mandatory content.
6. A calendar with the year's due dates, because deadlines give no warning and the first arrives sooner than it seems.

Particular cases that change the registration

Situation	What changes
You also have a job as an employee	It is pluriactividad, holding two activities at once: you contribute to two schemes and a refund of the excess may apply. See salary and self-employment at once
You have been receiving unemployment benefit	There are three different routes and choosing the wrong one costs you the whole benefit: the three routes
You are going to invoice clients in other countries	The ROI has to be ticked on the 036 itself and the VAT place-of-supply rules reviewed
You are moving to Spain from abroad	It is worth checking first whether the special regime for workers posted to Spain fits: the self-employed and the Beckham regime

The three registration mistakes that cost money later

Mistake	When it is discovered	What it costs
Not ticking the reduced contribution when joining the RETA	With the first bill or, worse, months later	The difference between €86 and the bracket's contribution, every month
Declaring obligations on the 036 that do not apply, or leaving out ones that do	With the first request for a missing return	A penalty for not filing a form you did not even know you had, or unnecessary filings for years
Entering a start date that does not match reality	In a review, when invoices are cross-checked against the census	Correction of the periods before the declared registration

All three are avoided by giving the registration an hour instead of twenty minutes. The second is the quietest: a 036 that switches on the obligation to file a form that does not apply creates a perpetual quarterly obligation, and the tax office expects it even if your activity has no need of it. Switching it off afterwards is another census change, and meanwhile every quarter not filed is a formal infringement.

And if I register and invoice nothing

The obligation does not depend on there being income. From the tax registration onwards, the tax office expects the forms listed on your census entry every quarter, even if they come to zero, and Social Security expects the contribution every month. A registered autónomo who invoices nothing still has to file their returns and still pays: failure to file carries its own penalty even if the result was zero.

That is why deregistration, when you stop the activity, also has to be done at both offices. Stopping invoicing is not deregistering, and an open census entry creates obligations for years. The full calendar for the first year is in your first year as self-employed.

We are tax lawyers, not a gestoría that processes forms: what we bring is not filling in the form (anyone can do that) but deciding what goes in each box knowing what it means three years from now. If you would like us to prepare the registration with you, tell us what you are going to do in the self-employed registration form. The general approach is on registering as self-employed. We do not promise that registering will cost you nothing or that a particular regime applies to you: that depends on your circumstances, and it is checked before anything is filed.