How and why become self-employed in Barcelona

Coming to live in a new city can be a frightening prospect for some people, while to others it may represent a real adventure. The same applies to finding a workplace, and again people with specific talents, who are not afraid to take a chance, prefer to take the route of becoming self-employed.

Whether you are planning to spend some time in Barcelona, either to study or work one thing for sure is you will need to find yourself somewhere to live. Anyone on the lookout and want to see a choice of the best of Barcelona apartments then you can say save yourself a lot of time and energy, by dealing with the leading estate agents in the city, ShBarcelona. ShBarcelona are among the longest established and most experienced estate agents in the city, dealing exclusively in Barcelona apartment rentals. So if you’re thinking either short-term or long term rental in Barcelona then ShBarcelona should be the first place on your list to visit.

With the problem of finding somewhere to live taken care of, the next stage in your plan to establish your own business in Barcelona should be to take care of the various legal requirements to being self-employed (autónomo/a) in Barcelona. First and foremost, self-employed or not, you need to visit the Barcelona branch of the Interior Ministry to organize your NIE – Número de Identidad de Extranjeros (Identity Card).

The next day to summon intending to do any form of freelancing is to register at the local tax office – Delegación de Hacienda. You will find details of how to get there on the Agencia Tributaria website.

Once you arrive at the Delegación de Hacienda Offices you will have to deal with no small amounts of paperwork, providing details of the type of services you will be offering as a freelancer. You will also be legally required to register for IVA, which is the Spanish equivalent to sales tax or value added tax. According to the laws of Spain your identity card number also acts as your IVA number.

Without taking care of the final stage in the registration process is to register at your local social security office, to find details of the nearest branch you should click on their website. When visiting the Social Security offices you should make sure you bring with you to passport as well as your identity card.

From the moment that you registered as being self-employed you should bear in mind that your legally obliged to pay around €250 monthly to cover your national health contributions, although it does some form of payment should you become unemployed or get sick or injured and unable to work.

If you would like to learn more about the ins and outs of becoming self-employed in Barcelona, there is a website (in Spanish) which provides some very helpful information for the self-employed in Spain which is worth taking a look at. Good luck!