Registering as a freelancer: Hacienda and Seguridad Social

Registering as a freelancer is not a single procedure, but 2 registrations with 2 different bodies that must be done before starting to work on your own account.

The first is the census registration at Hacienda (Agencia Tributaria) using form 036: it notifies that you are going to carry out an economic activity, under which IAE heading, and with which VAT and personal income tax (IRPF) obligations.

The second is registration in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) of the Seguridad Social: it gives you coverage (medical leave, retirement, cessation of activity) and generates the obligation to pay the monthly quota.

Both registrations are free in themselves (there is no tasa for submitting form 036 or for registering with the RETA). What you pay later is the monthly freelancer quota. Managora takes care of preparing and submitting both for you, in the correct order and within the deadline.

Any natural person who habitually, personally and directly carries out an economic activity for profit, without an employment contract for a third party, must register. This also applies to corporate freelancers (directors with control of the company) and collaborating freelancers (relatives working with the owner).

The criterion of habituality is what usually generates doubts. The Seguridad Social has been accepting that anyone who does not exceed the Minimum Interprofessional Wage in annual calculation could dispute the habituality, but it is an interpretive area: if the activity is continuous, the prudent thing is to register.

For registration at Hacienda there is no threshold: any economic activity for profit requires you to submit form 036, even if the income is low.

If you have doubts about whether your specific case requires registration in the RETA or not, Managora analyses your situation before processing.

The usual order is: first choose the IAE heading, then the census registration at Hacienda (form 036) and, finally, the registration in the RETA of the Seguridad Social.

Registration at Hacienda must be prior to the start of the activity, before issuing the first invoice. Registration in the RETA can be requested up to 60 calendar days before starting and, at the latest, on the same day you start working on your own account: this is stated in the Practical guide to self-employment of the Seguridad Social. What is not possible is to leave it for later: if you request it once the activity has started, the registration takes effect from day 1 of the month in which you started working and, if you request it from the month following the start, the months worked without registration are quoted at the minimum base of bracket 1 of the general table, without subsequent regularisation, and the overdue quotas carry a surcharge.

When registering with the RETA, you choose the contribution base, within the bracket corresponding to the expected income, the collaborating mutual society and, if you meet the requirements, you tick the request for the reduced start of activity fee. This request is made during the registration process itself: not afterwards.

See the numbered step-by-step guide below. Managora executes all 5 steps for you and confirms each submitted registration.

With the reduced start of activity fee you will pay €80 a month during the first 12 months, and the Seguridad Social itself estimates the real charge at €88.64, because the contribution of the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism is added to those €80. Without the reduced fee, the minimum quota for 2026 starts at €205.88 a month.

This reduced fee lasts for 12 full calendar months and can be extended for another 12 if your net returns for the period fall below the annual minimum interprofessional wage, which in 2026 is €17,094. It is requested during the registration process itself and, for the extension, before the second period begins (article 38 ter of Ley 20/2007). During this first period, furthermore, you are exempt from contributing for cessation of activity and for vocational training.

Requirements: not having been registered in the RETA in the immediately preceding 2 years, or in the 3 years if you previously enjoyed the reduced fee. Partners of capital companies and labour companies and working partners of associated work cooperatives registered in the RETA can request it (article 38 ter.9 of Ley 20/2007). Collaborating family members up to the second degree cannot request it, as they have their own bonus. And if you deregister during the period, the right is extinguished.

When it runs out, you start contributing according to the bracket that corresponds to your real returns from the first day of the following month. That is where the other aid comes in: several autonomous communities later refund what was paid with the so-called zero quota, and the usual requirement to request it is precisely having previously been on the state reduced fee. You can find it community by community in our guide to the zero quota and the service in the cuota_cero_autonomos_ccaa file.

Since 2023 the quota is calculated by real net returns: you forecast your monthly average, that places you in 1 of the 15 brackets and, on the base you choose within the bracket, the rate of 31.50% is applied. From the following year, when the Agencia Tributaria communicates your returns, the Treasury regularises; the reduced fee of the first 12 months is not regularised (article 38 ter.6 of Ley 20/2007). You have the complete table of brackets, the change of base and the regularisation in our guide to the freelancer quota; below we leave 3 examples.

Processed electronically, both registrations are practically immediate: the registration at Hacienda is recorded instantly and the registration in the RETA is confirmed on the same day.

Tax obligations start with the activity. As a freelancer you must generally submit quarterly VAT (form 303) and fractional IRPF payments (form 130 in direct estimation). The first 3 quarters are submitted from the 1st to the 20th of April, July and October; the fourth, both VAT (form 303) and the fractional IRPF payment (form 130), from the 1st to the 30th of January of the following year. Added to this is the submission of the annual summaries.

The quota for the month of registration is prorated by calendar days from the date the registration takes effect: for the first 3 registrations of the calendar year, which cover any new freelancer registered on time, only the proportional part of the days registered is paid and not the full monthly payment. That is why the effective date does influence the cost of that first month: registering at the end of the month makes the quota for that month cheaper. It is advisable to plan the effective date.

Managora leaves your obligations programmed and notifies you of each deadline.

The most recent structural change is the suppression of form 037 (simplified census declaration) by Orden HAC/1526/2024, in force since 3 February 2025. Since then all census registrations are done with form 036.

The system of contribution by real income remains fully in force. For 2026 the table of brackets from 2025 is maintained, with the upward adjustment of the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), which slightly raises the quota.

The flat rate remains in force as a reduced fee for new freelancers.

Remember that the regularisation of the quotas for a financial year is not done when submitting the Income Tax return: it is carried out by the General Treasury of the Seguridad Social from the following year, when the Agencia Tributaria communicates your returns (article 308.1.c) of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social). If you have to pay, you have until the last day of the month following the notification without a surcharge; if you are due a refund, the Treasury refunds it ex officio before 30 April of the year following that communication.

To be a freelancer in Spain you need 3 things, and none of them is money: to be 18 years old, to have a valid NIF or NIE (Foreigner Identity Number), and to be in a position to carry out the activity you are going to invoice. No minimum capital, university degree, or premises are required.

Age is the requirement that generates the most confusion because there are 2 rules at play. Article 305.1 of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social obligatorily includes in the RETA natural persons over 18 years of age who carry out an economic activity on their own account on a habitual, personal and direct basis. And article 9 of Ley 20/2007, del Estatuto del trabajo autónomo (Statute of self-employment), prohibits self-employment for those under 16 years of age, even for their own relatives. Between 16 and 18 the situation is exceptional and must be looked at case by case.

The same article 305.1 sets the substantive requirement: the activity must be habitual, personal, direct, on your own account, outside the scope of direction and organisation of another person, and for profit. It does not matter if you have employees in your charge or if you work alone.

There are activities that also require their own requirement, such as membership in regulated professions or a municipal licence if you are going to open premises to the public. That requirement is not checked upon registration, but they will demand it later. Managora reviews what you need before submitting anything.

At Hacienda no, never: any economic activity obliges you to submit form 036 before the first invoice, without an income threshold. At the Seguridad Social it depends on the activity being habitual, which is where the real doubt lies.

The law does not set a figure from which an activity becomes habitual. The reference that has been used is the minimum interprofessional wage, which in 2026 is €1,221 a month in 14 payments and €17,094 a year (Real Decreto 126/2026, of 18 February). However, it is an indication and not a rule: a continuous activity obliges registration in the RETA even if it does not reach that figure.

Invoicing without being registered is expensive and can be measured. The Treasury claims the quotas from the real start of the activity and, during the months worked without registration, the applicable base is not the one you would have chosen but the minimum of bracket 1 of the general table, €950.98 a month in 2026 (article 308.1.a), rule 5, of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social). Added to these quotas is the surcharge of article 30 of the same law: 10% if paid within the calendar month following the due date and 20% from the second.

On top of that, not requesting registration is a serious infringement of article 22.7 of the Ley sobre Infracciones y Sanciones en el Orden Social (Law on Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order). If discovered by the Labour Inspectorate, the fine ranges from €3,750 to €12,000. And at Hacienda, submitting the census declaration after the deadline is penalised with €400, which is reduced to €200 if you submit it before they require it (article 198 of the Ley General Tributaria).

If you have already started invoicing without registering, what you have to do is regularise as soon as possible, because the surcharge and the risk of penalty decrease if you come forward yourself. Managora prepares both registrations with the correct effects and tells you what to expect.

Registration has no tasa: neither form 036 before the Agencia Tributaria nor registration in the RETA before the Treasury cost money. What you really pay is the monthly quota from the month of registration and, if you do not want to do it yourself, the fee of whoever handles the management.

The first quota, moreover, is cheaper than people think: it is prorated by calendar days from the effective date. For the first 3 registrations of the calendar year, which cover any new freelancer, you only pay for the days you have been registered that month.

With the reduced start of activity fee, the Seguridad Social itself estimates the charge for the first year at €88.64 a month: €80 in quota plus the contribution of the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism. Without it, the minimum quota for 2026 starts at €205.88 a month.

Doing it yourself is possible and costs no tasa, but you need an electronic certificate or Cl@ve (the Spanish electronic identity system) and, above all, to get the heading, the VAT regime and the IRPF estimation method right the first time, because a wrongly ticked box drags on for years and is corrected with a modification declaration. In the alta_autonomo file you have the fixed price for us to do it, with both registrations submitted and the receipt in your email.

The IAE heading is the code that describes what you do, and what really decides is not the number but the section: first if the activity is business, second if it is professional and third if it is artistic.

That choice has an immediate consequence on your invoice. Whoever is in the second or third section issues invoices with an IRPF retention of 15%, which drops to 7% in the year the activity starts and in the following 2, provided they had not carried out any professional activity in the previous year (article 95 of the Reglamento del IRPF). Whoever is in the first section does not apply that retention.

You can have more than 1 heading, and it is often advisable: each different activity has its own and is declared on page 4 of form 036, one sheet per activity. Natural persons are exempt from paying the IAE, so the heading will not cost you money, but it does condition your VAT, your IRPF and the forms you will submit each quarter.

In the following table you have the most frequent headings, as they appear in the tax rates approved by Real Decreto Legislativo 1175/1990. If your activity does not fit into any, the economic activities search engine on the Agencia Tributaria electronic headquarters locates it; Managora sets it for you based on the description of what you do and leaves it written in the 036.

Yes, and here the order matters more than the paperwork: the single payment request must be prior to the start date of the activity that appears in your registration with the Seguridad Social.

The State Public Employment Service denies capitalisation if on the date of the request you are already registered in the freelancers regime. You can request it at the same time as the contributory benefit or later, provided you have at least 3 monthly payments pending and have not started the activity. Once the request is submitted, you can register without waiting for the resolution.

It is the most expensive mistake when starting: registering on a Monday and requesting the single payment on Tuesday leaves an entire benefit uncapitalised, and there is no going back. If you plan to capitalise, say so before we set the effective date of registration, because it is a date that is chosen.

The details of the single payment, its modalities and what expenses it can cover are in our guide to aid for lack of income.

It depends on your nationality. If you are a citizen of the European Union, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you do not need authorisation: you register as a freelancer with your NIE, under the same conditions as a Spaniard, and if you are going to reside for more than 3 months you also request the registration certificate for Union citizens.

If you are not, registration does not replace authorisation: you need a title that enables you to work on your own account in Spain. The NIE alone does not enable you to work, it is just an identification number. Registration with the Seguridad Social and authorisation to work are different things and are checked separately, so the correct order is first the authorisation and then the 2 registrations.

This is exactly the intersection where Managora works every day, because we handle both sides: the residence and self-employment authorisation and the freelancer registration. If your situation is halfway, say so before processing and we will tell you what goes first.

This is expanded upon in our guides to residence and work in Spain and visas under Ley 14/2013 (the Spanish Entrepreneurs Act) for entrepreneurs, digital nomads and highly qualified professionals.

The collaborating freelancer is the relative who habitually works in the business of another freelancer and lives with them. They register in the RETA like any freelancer, but they are not the one who invoices or who appears as the owner of the activity in the Hacienda census: that remains the owner's business.

They have their own and quite good bonus: 50% of the quota for common contingencies corresponding to the minimum base of bracket 1 during the first 18 months and 25% during the following 6, 24 months in total (article 35 of Ley 20/2007). The requirement is not having been registered in the RETA in the immediately preceding 5 years, 5 and not 2.

What they cannot request is the reduced start of activity fee: article 38 ter of that same law expressly excludes family members up to the second degree. It is the typical mistake of someone who registers their partner thinking they will pay €80 a month.

The family circle reaches the spouse, the unmarried partner and relatives by consanguinity or affinity up to the second degree, including adoption. And there is an alternative that many people do not know: you can hire children under 30 years of age, even if they live with you, as employees, with the only particularity that they are excluded from unemployment coverage (tenth additional provision of Ley 20/2007).

If your case is the opposite, that of a partner or director of a company with effective control, what corresponds to you is not the collaborator but the corporate freelancer classification, which has its own guide and its own file.