How To Bill If You Are A Self-employed Psychologist In Spain?
Psychology is a science in charge of the study and analysis of the psyche and the processes that are part of it. But it is also a profession that requires great effort, perseverance and dedication, the figure of the psychologist being that of a professional whose services imply financial remuneration.
Many professionals work for the public administration or manage to be hired by a company or psychology institute, but the truth is that the vast majority of psychologists must establish themselves as autonomous professionals in order to survive, and to do so they must be able to bill for their services. How to bill if you are a self-employed psychologist in Spain? We are going to see it throughout this article.
Requirements to start billing as a self-employed psychologist
Before starting to deal with patients or users and being able to make invoices, it is necessary to meet a series of prerequisites. And it is that To be self-employed and be able to bill as such, it will be necessary to carry out a series of previous steps
Firstly, in order to work as a psychologist, it is essential to register first, this registration being a legal requirement to be able to practice. In addition, it will be necessary to be registered with Social Security.
Once this is done and as long as we have the necessary qualifications to practice, we must register as self-employed with Social Security and the Treasury, registering ourselves with the Tax on Economic Activities or IAE and filling out form 037 for registering as self-employed (with the heading 776). . Once this is done we can start billing.
From then on we will have to pay the self-employed fee monthly as well as submitting form 130 for quarterly payment of personal income tax and 303 for VAT in case your professional activity is not exempt from this (also quarterly). It will also be necessary to have a tax domicile, which is necessary to be able to perform billing and to fill out the previous forms.
However, first of all we must bear in mind that if we work as an employee hired by a company, it will not be necessary to carry out the billing procedures since we will receive a salary from the company in question. We will only need to invoice if we offer our services as self-employed or freelancers.
However, Being linked to a company is not the same as being hired: It is common for companies to employ self-employed professionals who bill for their services, in which case you would be working on your own and it will be necessary to do so.
Other requirements to work in the clinic
In the case of working in the clinic, it will also be necessary to obtain authorization as a health center (even if we carry out the professional activity in our own home), something that includes another series of procedures linked to the center and the professional activity itself. . The specific procedures will depend on whether we establish ourselves on our own or create a company
Focusing on the first case, we will have to have a book of income and expenses, the opening or activity license, the registration of the waste rate, the quarterly rental declaration (form 115 in the Treasury) and if we hire someone We will also have to fill out form 111, also quarterly.
As for the center, it will be necessary to obtain, as we have said, the health record. To do this, it will be necessary to make an application addressed to the “Servei d’Autorització i Registre d’Entitats, Centers i Serveis Sanitaris”, pay the fees, possess and present a rental contract for the property or a copy of the deeds, the DNI , and the technical project signed by a technician (including technical memory and functional memory)
It will be necessary to have an enabled space free of architectural barriers, an office of at least 8 square meters. It can only be shared by other professionals with the same activity and must be accessible from a public space, having a reception and waiting area, consultation and having a service for patients and companions.
We must also be registered with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AGPD) in order to communicate and record the type of data with which we will work, provide ourselves with security measures for the processing of patient data, and have complaint forms. and an informative sign in this regard, carry out occupational risk prevention and have civil liability insurance.
Make your own invoice as a psychologist in Spain
Per se, Creating the invoice is relatively simple it is only necessary to take into account the different elements that must be included.
First of all, it must be made clear that the document we are creating is an invoice, and it must appear visibly in the header. After that we must incorporate the invoice number that we are issuing, so that they can be ordered sequentially over time.
We must also include the date of issue of the invoice in question. It may also be advisable to incorporate the time, especially when we have several invoices from the same date.
Next we must indicate the basic data of both the issuer and the recipient of the invoice the sender being the professional himself and the receiver being the client or patient.
In the case of the issuer, we must enter our name and surname, DNI (or CIF if it is a company) and tax address including city, province and postal code. In the case of the recipient, the name and surname, ID and tax address or domicile must be stated (also including city, province and postal code). If the recipient is a company, instead of the DNI, the CIF will be necessary, as well as the company name.
After this identification data, we will proceed to briefly describe the services for which we are charging as well as the number of units of said service that we have provided (for example, we have given you three therapy sessions) and the unit price or price of each of said services. It is also possible to indicate what we consider a unit, such as an hour of therapy. We will indicate below the subtotal or the taxable base, that is, the total of the price charged gross.
Now we must go on to indicate the taxes that we will be charged on said invoice: VAT and Personal Income Tax. Now, it must be taken into account that The amount and percentage of these taxes can vary greatly These withholdings must be subtracted from the taxable base on the invoice itself, indicating both the percentage and the total of the amount in € withheld. After this we will record the Total of the invoice, which will be what we will receive once the relevant withholdings have been subtracted.
Finally, we must record the ownership of the data file, indicating who is responsible, the use that will be given to it and a brief list of the user’s rights. Besides, in the case of being exempt from withholdings We must also mention it on the invoice, indicating which law this exemption corresponds to.
VAT in billing: exemptions
One of the main taxes that most professionals must take into account when invoicing is the Value Added Tax or VAT, and must calculate and pay the percentage corresponding to their own professional activity in each of the invoices.
However, it must be taken into account that certain professional activities are not taxed by Value Added Tax or VAT with health professions (as long as they are recognized by the administration) exempt from said tax on their billing.
And according to article 20.3. of Law 37/1992 on Value Added Tax, assistance to natural persons by medical or health professionals is exempt from VAT, including the figure of the psychologist in said consideration. This means that if you are a psychologist specializing in clinical psychology or a general health psychologist (either by having taken the PIR examinations, having completed the Master’s Degree in General Health Psychology or having received qualification) and your professional performance is based on health performance, you will not have to invoice VAT.
This also extends, according to point 20.9 of the same law, to activities linked to the education of children and youth, including school and university education or professional training. In other words, if in the same context your economic activity leads you to carry out some type of training linked to the field of health, this is also exempt from VAT.
Now, the fact that these activities are exempt from VAT does not imply that we should not pay taxes on the rest, and it is necessary to bear in mind that if we carry out another type of activity we must include VAT in the invoice. In any case, even if we are exempt, we must indicate both the percentage and the total of the money withheld (in this case, 0).
The case of personal income tax: are there always withholdings?
The other major tax to take into account when invoicing is Personal Income Tax As in the case of VAT, we can also find exemptions in this tax. Any invoice that has a non-self-employed individual as the recipient will not require personal income tax withholding, so if the invoice is made to a private patient we will not have to subtract it from our invoice.
In the event that our services are offered to a company, institution or self-employed person, the invoice will be recorded by personal income tax, and it will be necessary to indicate the percentage withheld and the amount. In general, 15% is usually applied, although in the first three years the withholding may only be 7%.
