How To Start As A Psychologist By Registering With Social Security In Spain?
After studying for so long and having already finished, you begin to consider the possibility of opening your own practice as a psychologist but you don’t really know what you have to do.
Despite how much you have studied, you discover that you know very little about the laws, procedures and various procedures that must be done if what you want is to register for Social Security and work as a professional in your field.
Fortunately, today we bring a little light to the darkness and in the following lines you will find an explanation about how to start as a psychologist by registering with Social Security, applied for self-employed people in Spain.
Guide to start working as a psychologist by registering with Social Security
Throughout the degree, those of us who study Psychology learn all kinds of knowledge related to our discipline, of course. We learn about personality, neurodevelopment, social behavior, statistics, psychophysiology and many other areas that are part of the essential things that every psychologist must know in order to practice their profession.
Although they teach us everything, there is one aspect that is left a little aside and that I think they should explain to us a little better throughout the degree: What procedures are necessary to be able to practice as a psychologist?
Although it is true that there are subjects that present it to us a little and, also, in some postgraduate courses they teach about what procedures to do to be able to work in a private practice, the truth is that the average majority of recent Psychology students He has no idea what to do.
In order to shed some light on the path of the newly qualified regarding this issue, today we are going to talk about how to start as a Psychologist by registering with Social Security, something that although the website of the ALGO ministry itself explains it in all kinds of ways. of details, here we are going to address the most important points.
Registration in Social Security as a self-employed psychologist
The law that manages Social Security registration for self-employed workers, in our case psychologists, is Law 20/2007, dated July 11, whose last update was made on 12/31/2020. This is the Statute of the Self-Employed Worker, which explains what is understood as a professional who works as such, defining it as follows:
“Natural persons who habitually, personally, directly, on their own account and outside the scope of management and organization of another person, carry out an economic or professional activity for profit, whether or not they employ employed workers.”
According to this law, As long as you carry out an economic activity on your own and on a regular basis, it will be mandatory to register in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA), also known as the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers. This procedure is mandatory regardless of the duration of the work, its schedule and the remuneration received for it.
Regarding this procedure, it is necessary to highlight something. It is often heard that people who do not receive the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) do not need to register as self-employed. This is not true, since The key idea of the law that regulates this aspect is not the amount of money we charge, but the frequency of the activity that we perform. The obligation to register as self-employed occurs when an economic activity is carried out on a regular basis, regardless of the salary received for it.
As a curiosity to this fact, if we carry out any economic activity on a regular basis and, in exchange for it, we receive €0 (either because we do it as assistance or because they pay us in other ways) we have to register as self-employed. anyway.
On the contrary, If the activity we carry out is more sporadic in nature, in principle there will be no obligation to register However, if even working punctually we receive a salary higher than the SMI (1,108.33 euros monthly/13,300 euros annually in 2021), this procedure will be required, although it should be noted that this has more to do with the cases of individuals. that exceed the annual SMI, not the monthly one.
Likewise, You should consult with a manager if you receive a specific salary that is higher than the SMI to clear up doubts about the need to register for Social Security.
But what is meant by habitual and punctual? The word “habitual” is related to “habit,” and in this context it can be understood as any activity carried out by a psychologist that has continuity and repetition over time, while “punctual” can be related to an activity that , although it is related to Psychology, it has been done in isolation, sporadically. To better understand both situations and discern them better, below we are going to put four cases.
Examples
Let’s first look at several specific cases as examples, and then cases of regular work as psychologists.
Case 1
We are graduates in Psychology and have a General Health Master’s Degree, but we do not practice However, at one point an acquaintance who knows that we are psychologists asks us as a favor to listen to a problem that distresses him and try to help him. As compensation for helping him and spending a little time, he pays us €50.
Cases 2 and 3
We are working in our father’s masonry company despite being psychologists. Our task is to help you and, if new candidates present themselves, we interview them and we value your profile by acting a bit like “human resources personnel”.
One day, An institute in our municipality contacts us asking if we can hold a conference on Psychology at their center, talking about what training is necessary, what options there are and what the profession of a psychologist is like. We do the conference and the institute pays us €450.
In these two cases we can see that the activity related to Psychology is carried out sporadically. In the first case, you act as a clinical psychologist only once, treating a single patient and in isolation, without carrying out psychotherapy itself. In the second case we very occasionally act as something similar to a human resources person and only once as psychology teachers. In neither case would it be necessary to register with Social Security as a psychologist.
Case 3
We have just launched a Psychology consultation and we announce ourselves as psychotherapist psychologists in our city
Regardless of whether or not we have clients on a given day, we have a full-time office and are willing to take calls from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., providing psychotherapy from Monday to Friday and we indicate that we charge between €25 and €45 per hour depending on whether it is first session, type of problem to be treated and couples therapy.
Case 4
We opened a website where we offer clinical psychology sessions online As in the previous case, we have opening hours for our patients from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with similar prices and we indicate that we specialize in sexology and couple relationships.
In both situations we have to register as self-employed with Social Security because, even if we are very unlucky and do not receive any clients for an entire week, we are offering a regular job.
Important: Regardless of whether or not we have the obligation to register as self-employed, it does not mean that we do not have the obligation to invoice and declare any income for work to the Tax Agency.
Procedures and other paperwork
To register as psychologists in Social Security we have to follow a procedure, specifically that of registering in Social Security in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers. As we have mentioned, this procedure It will be mandatory to carry it out when the activity that we are going to carry out as psychologists is carried out on a regular basis or it is a specific task but in which we receive a financial remuneration greater than the SMI
The requirements to be able to register are:
Have registered with the Treasury in the 30 days prior to the date of registration with Social Security.
In the event that the Registration with the Treasury was for a specific activity, it must be explained and demonstrated that such was a specific activity.
The necessary documentation To request such a procedure is:
Model TA0521
DNI / NIF
Copy or original of our Registration in the Treasury.
Social Security Membership Card (only if you have previously worked as an employee).
This procedure, as with everything in matters of bureaucracy, It can be done in two ways: online (recommended) and in person (not recommended) The first can be done through the electronic headquarters of the Social Security website and using the digital Certificate, where they will request the relevant documents from the comfort of our home. In person, if we dare, we must make an appointment and go to the corresponding territorial Social Security delegation.
Once the procedures have been completed, the documentation that they will give us will be the receipt of Model TA0521.
In principle, This procedure involves a total cost of €0 but some of the procedures that have to be carried out related to this require specialized legal knowledge such as, for example, the contribution base, the calculation of benefits, the coverage for which contributions are made, and many others. To facilitate the process, it is advisable to go to specialists, such as a manager and advisor, to help us in this process. This will mean that we have to pay, of course, but it is preferable since it will save us a real headache.
Monthly payment or self-employed fee
From June 1, 2021 and until the end of the same year, The monthly fee for self-employed workers in Spain will be 289 if they contribute for the minimum base and 1,245.45 if they contribute for the maximum base
Flat rate
The Social Security Flat Rate consists of a temporary reduction in the Social Security contribution, and is applicable to new self-employed workers when they register. This flat rate consists of starting with a monthly payment of €60 (until recently it was €50) to Social Security instead of the 286.15 that constitute the minimum monthly payment in 2021
The requirements to qualify for the Flat Rate are:
Register for the first time as self-employed.
Not having been registered as self-employed in the last two years (3 if you have enjoyed some type of previous bonus)
That at least three years have passed since we registered as self-employed if we had previously registered as such.*
Not being a self-employed collaborator (special regime for family members of the self-employed).
It can be repeated as long as 3 years have passed between the discharge and the next registration.
