The 2023 income campaign, which starts in April, will bring great news for the self-employed. Unlike previous years, the minimum of 1,000 euros that required the procedure to be carried out based on certain assumptions is eliminated. Now all those who have been in this regime in 2023 will have to file the declaration: it will not matter whether they have had income or not or whether the activity has led to profits or losses.
The obligation is now conditioned by having been registered in the system as a self-employed worker (self-employed) in the year to which the campaign refers. Even if it has been one day and it has not been invoiced, the declaration will have to be submitted. "Any self-employed person who has been registered in 2023, even if it is only for one day, will have to submit the declaration compulsorily. Even if they have not received income, even if they have registered and deregistered on the same day, even if they have not obtained any income...", reviews Aitor Fernández, tax expert at the online consultancy TaxDown.
Failure to comply with the procedure can be expensive, because even though the income has been zero, "the model has to be presented because if it is not done, sanctions could be imposed," he warns.
Specifically, the change has come due to a modification of the personal income tax regulations that takes effect from December 7, 2023, so it comes into force in this campaign. "The obligation to declare is incorporated for all those individuals who at any time during the tax period (in this case 2023) had been registered, as self-employed workers, in the Special Regime for Self-Employed or Self-Employed Workers, or in the Special Social Security Regime for Sea Workers," explains the Tax Agency.
In the previous campaign, those self-employed workers who earned more than 1,000 euros in income were required to make the declaration, in a change that marks one of the great novelties of the new step through the Treasury offices. Now they will have to present it regardless of their level of income, which will allow the Tax Agency to have greater monitoring of the operations of the self-employed.
There could be taxpayers who until now had not made the declaration: what should be taken into account if doing so for the first time as a self-employed person? "There tend to be more errors in the concept of expense, what is considered and what is not. Some are not clear about amortization, the cash criteria or the expense allocation criteria," responds Juan Osuna, partner responsible for tax at Fieldfisher. As an example, he says that a car would make more sense to see as an expense, but that a telephone or a computer would have to be depreciated. "Sometimes there is more failure in this among the smaller self-employed."
For the group, the maxim of reviewing the draft made by the Tax Agency applies even more, since there may be income and expenses not collected that change the result of the declaration. It may be more appropriate for them to have a manager. "If you are self-employed, they normally ask you to present a book of invoices already issued with what expenses and income you have. And that is beyond the control of many...", he points out. Unlike an employed worker, "here there can be a little more lack of control, especially among those who do not have VAT operations - mentions a doctor or dentist - and it is more difficult for them to collect information."
