Power to the people: Pedro Sanchez signs landmark deal to protect Spain’s self-employed

THE government has signed a landmark deal to protect the rights of Spain’s self-employed people.

These changes to Spanish taxation, revealed as part of the General State Budgets 2019, will link the contributions of self-employed workers to their actual incomes.

The changes are part of a government roll-out of fiscal measures to achieve a fairer society and in essence the changes mean that from 2019 workers with lower incomes pay a lower state contribution.

In the budget statement the government said: “After seven years of cuts and suffocation our country has regressed on equal opportunities, in social cohesion, in freedoms and rights, in democratic quality and in coexistence.”

The announcement comes as the government also agree to ending so-called ‘false self employment’ before the end of 2018 by including a law that says workers offering their services for hire are – in monetary terms – employed by the company hiring them.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias signed the agreement into law at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid this month.