Can I register as self-employed for just a couple of months a year?

This is one of the asked questions by our clients and we are going to try to give a proper answer.

If it’s not worth your while paying your Social Security contributions the whole year round, it is possible to register only for the months you work. This could be the case for self-employed language teachers, or for people employed in seasonal activities such as tourism.

In such cases, even if your earnings remain below the minimum wage threshold, you will still have to register with the Special Regime for Self-employed Workers (RETA) as it is considered a regular activity.

David Valero from VP Advisers says you will have to be able to prove that you were working during the periods you were paying your self-employed Social Security contributions. “An example would be a programmer who registers for one month out of three, billing €3,000 each time. He could get a call from Social Security asking: ‘How can we know that you did all that work in just one month?’ That’s different to somebody who runs a bar in the summer, because that is easy to prove,” he says.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that if you register and unregister at different times over the year, you also run the risk of losing the right to the flat-rate contribution.

For further details do not hesitate in contacting us