Since the reform brought in by Real Decreto-ley 13/2022, the monthly contribution a self-employed person pays to the RETA (the special social security scheme for the self-employed) is no longer a free choice and depends on what you earn. The system works in two stages: during the year you pay according to a forecast you make yourself, and the following year the Tesorería, the Social Security treasury, compares that forecast with what you actually declared and reconciles the difference. Understanding the mechanism avoids the two typical surprises: the letter asking for money and the one that pays back late.
The scheme, in four moves
- Forecast. When you register, and whenever you like, you notify the net earnings you expect to make in the year.
- Bracket and base. That forecast places you in a bracket, and within the bracket you choose your contribution base between a minimum and a maximum. The monthly contribution comes from the base.
- Income tax return. The following year, your IRPF return reveals your real earnings.
- Reconciliation. The Tesorería compares the two, and either claims the difference from you or refunds the excess.
The table of brackets and bases is set annually, which is why we do not publish it here: any table we wrote would be out of date the next time someone read this page. What does not change is the mechanism, which is what we explain. The current table is on the Social Security electronic site and on the Import@ss portal, and it is the only reference worth using to run the numbers.
What "net computable earnings" are
This is the crux. The figure that decides your bracket is not your turnover, nor exactly the net earnings in your income tax return. It is a calculation specific to Social Security, built up like this:
| Step | Operation |
|---|---|
| 1 | Net earnings from the activity, calculated under the IRPF rules: income less deductible expenses |
| 2 | The worker's own Social Security contributions, which had been subtracted as an expense for income tax, are added back |
| 3 | A deduction for general expenses is subtracted, at the percentage set by the rules, which for a self-employed company member (autónomo societario) is 3 % |
| = | Net computable earnings, which are divided by the months of registration |
Step 2 surprises almost everyone: the contributions you have paid are added back. The reason is that the system wants to measure economic capacity before the contribution itself, so as to avoid a loop in which paying a lower contribution pushes the base up. Step 3 is the counterweight, a flat-rate deduction that does not have to be justified.
Which earnings count
Not only those from classic self-employed work. The earnings from all the economic activities carried on by the self-employed worker count, and for someone who is a member of companies, the earnings the rules attribute to them as a company member count as well. Someone with two activities adds both together: you do not contribute for each one, you contribute once on the total.
The forecast can be changed several times a year
It is the most useful tool in the system and the least used. The rules allow the contribution base to be changed several times over the year (up to six, with effects staggered across two-month periods) by notifying a new earnings forecast. Nothing has to be justified: notifying it is enough.
| Situation during the year | What to do |
|---|---|
| The business is doing better than expected | Raise the base. It avoids a reconciliation with a claim the following year and improves benefits |
| The business is doing worse | Lower the base. It eases cash flow now and saves waiting a year for a refund |
| The main client is lost in September | Review the forecast for the whole year, not just the last quarter |
| Nothing has changed | Review it anyway in the last two-month period: it is the last chance to adjust the year |
The contribution base does not only decide what you pay: it decides what you would receive during sick leave, in a benefit for ceasing activity and, in the long run, in your pension. Contributing at the minimum for your whole working life has a deferred cost that shows up in no monthly bill. It is a personal decision and we do not give financial planning recommendations: what we do is put both effects on the table before the decision is made.
The following year's reconciliation, with two examples
The Tesorería receives the data from your return from the Agencia Tributaria, the tax agency, calculates your net computable earnings and compares them with the base on which you contributed.
| Case | What happened | Result |
|---|---|---|
| You contributed below what applied to you | You forecast low earnings and the year turned out better | The Tesorería claims the difference, with its own payment deadline |
| You contributed above | You over-forecast, or the year went wrong | The excess is refunded automatically, within the period set by the rules |
| You contributed within the correct bracket | The forecast was reasonable | Nothing to reconcile |
Two practical warnings about the claim. First, it arrives quite a while after the end of the year, because the income tax return has to have been filed and processed first, so it is worth remembering that it exists and not spending the money. Second, if your income tax return is wrong (expenses not deducted, income allocated to the wrong year) the reconciliation carries the error forward, because it starts from that data. Keeping the books properly does not only save income tax: it saves contributions.
A complete example, from invoice to bracket
The path from what you invoice to the figure that decides your bracket has four steps, and at each one something is lost or gained. For a self-employed person registered for twelve months, who is not a company member:
| Item | Amount (€) |
|---|---|
| Income from the activity, excluding VAT | 48,000 |
| Deductible expenses, not counting self-employed contributions | −13,500 |
| Social Security contributions paid in the year | −4,100 |
| Net earnings for income tax | 30,400 |
| Social Security contributions added back | +4,100 |
| Deduction for general expenses, at the current percentage | per the table |
| Net computable earnings | The result of the above |
| Divided by 12 months of registration | Monthly average used to find the bracket |
Notice that the contributions appear twice: they are subtracted for income tax and added back for Social Security. It is not a mistake in the table, it is exactly what the system does, and it is why the number deciding your contribution is always somewhat higher than the net earnings in your return. Someone who looks for their bracket starting straight from the box in the income tax return places themselves one step below where they belong and sets themselves up for a reconciliation.
How to make a forecast that is not too far off
- Start from the previous year, if there was one, and not from gross turnover.
- Subtract real expenses, including depreciation on what you have bought.
- Add the self-employed contributions you are going to pay. It is the step almost nobody takes and the one that skews the calculation most.
- Apply the deduction for general expenses that fits your situation.
- Divide by the months of registration and look up the bracket in the current table.
If you have just started and have no history, a cautious forecast and a review halfway through the year are worth more than an optimistic estimate held for twelve months. The system is designed to be corrected as it goes, and not using that possibility means giving up half its advantages.
Part months, registrations and deregistrations
The average is calculated by dividing net computable earnings by the months of registration in the year, not by twelve. Someone who registers in September divides by four, so a small figure in annual terms can put them in a high bracket in monthly terms. It is a counter-intuitive effect that surprises the first self-employed person who registers halfway through the year with concentrated invoicing.
The same applies in reverse: someone who deregisters in April and returns in November has two periods of registration that add up to a number of months, and the calculation is made on the whole. That is why, when the registration does not cover the whole year, it is worth redoing the forecast thinking in months rather than in the year's total: it is the most frequent calculation error in the whole system.
How it interacts with the flat rate
Someone entitled to the reduced contribution in article 38 ter of Ley 20/2007, the Self-Employment Statute, pays €86 a month in the first year regardless of their earnings, and the extension into the second year does depend on the level of those earnings. During that period the bracket logic is suspended, and it resumes when the period ends. Who qualifies and who does not is in the flat rate.
And someone combining self-employment with a salaried job contributes to two schemes at once, with its own rule for refunding the excess, which we explain in salary and self-employment at once. The calendar for everything else is in your first year as self-employed.
We keep the books and file the returns, which is where the number the Tesorería ends up using comes from. If you would like us to review your forecast before the year closes, or look at a reconciliation claim that has reached you, write to us through the self-employed registration form. The page for this area is registering as self-employed. We do not promise that a claim from the Tesorería can be cancelled: we promise to check where the figure comes from before it is paid.