Self-employed in Spain: what you pay Social Security in 2026, and the reduced quota for starting out

How the system works since 2023

Self-employed workers, autónomos, are registered in their own Social Security scheme, the RETA. Since 2023 they no longer choose freely how much to pay: they contribute on a base that depends on their expected net income, rendimientos netos, from their activity. There are fifteen income bands — three in a reduced table for low incomes and twelve in a general table — and each band has a minimum and a maximum base. You pick a base within your band.

Because income is estimated in advance, it is checked afterwards. Once the Tax Agency knows your real net income for the year, Social Security regularises: if you paid on a base below the band your real income falls into, you pay the difference; if above, you are refunded.

The 2026 bands

No budget act has been passed for 2026, so the 2025 budget rules were extended, and the order setting 2026 contributions keeps the 2025 tables. The reduced table: net monthly income up to €670, base between €653.59 and €718.94; over €670 and up to €900, between €718.95 and €900; over €900 and under €1,166.70, between €849.67 and €1,166.70.

The general table starts at €1,166.70 of monthly net income, with a minimum base of €950.98, and rises through twelve bands. The last band, over €6,000 a month, has a minimum base of €1,928.10. Whatever your income, the maximum base is €5,101.20 a month.

The rates applied to your chosen base in 2026 include 28.30% for common contingencies, 1.30% for occupational contingencies — accidents at work and occupational illness — and 0.90% for the intergenerational equity mechanism, plus the smaller contributions for cessation of activity and vocational training. The order sets them all; the Social Security simulator applies them for you.

The reduced quota for new starters

Article 38 ter of the Self-Employed Workers' Statute gives a reduced quota to people registering in the RETA for the first time, or who have not been registered in the two years before. During the first twelve full calendar months you pay a single reduced quota for common and occupational contingencies, and you are exempt from contributing for cessation of activity and vocational training.

After those twelve months, you can keep a reduced quota for twelve more if your expected net income for that period is below the annual minimum wage — €17,094 in 2026. You apply before the second period starts, with a declaration of expected income. If the second period straddles two calendar years, the condition has to be met in each.

For 2023 to 2025 the law fixed the reduced quota at €80 a month. From 2026 the amount is to be set by each year's budget act. As no 2026 budget act exists, we have not found an official figure for 2026 in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, and we do not print one; check the amount with Social Security when you register.

People with a disability of 33% or more, victims of gender violence and victims of terrorism get longer periods: 24 months and then 36 months. Relatives up to the second degree of an existing self-employed person who join the RETA as collaborating family members are excluded.

Conditions that catch people out

You must ask for the reduction when you register. It is not applied automatically and cannot be claimed later for the first period.

If you deregister during either period, the right ends. And if you had the reduction before, the break needed to qualify again is three years, not two.

Employing staff does not cost you the reduction.

During the reduced periods, the benefits you can claim — sick pay, for example — are calculated on the minimum base of the lowest band, not on what you would otherwise have paid.

During the first twelve months the reduced quota is not regularised against your real income. During the second, it is — if your income turns out to exceed the minimum wage in a year, that year's contributions are recalculated.

Registering

Registration in the RETA must be filed before the activity starts, and you need a Social Security number, which in turn needs your NIE. The date on that registration also starts the six-month window for opting into the tax regime for people who move to Spain, if you qualify for it as an entrepreneur or highly qualified professional.

Non-EU nationals also need a residence status that allows self-employment — a self-employed permit, or a permit that authorises work of any kind. Registering with Social Security does not create that right.