The minimum withholding percentage for artists with a special employment relationship will be reduced from 15 to 2% and the withholding for self-employed artists with an income of less than 15,000 euros will be reduced from 15 to 7%
On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree amending the personal income tax scheme to comply with the measures of the Artists’ Statute regarding deductions. Thus, the first measure consists of a reduction from 15 to 2% of the minimum withholding percentage applicable to employment income obtained from a special employment relationship of artists exercising their activity in the performing, audiovisual and musical arts, as well as of persons working for perform technical or support work necessary for the development of that activity.
In the second measure, the withholding percentage is reduced from 15 to 7% with regard to the economic activities carried out by artists who pay tax as a self-employed person. For this, according to the press release of the Ministry of Culture, it is necessary that the artist has obtained full income from such activities of less than 15,000 euros in the previous tax period and that they represent their main source of income, the latter being understood to be more than 75% of the sum of the entire income from economic activities and labor obtained by the taxpayer in that tax year.
It was Isabel Rodríguez, the Minister of Territorial Policy and government spokesman, who was responsible for announcing both measures at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. According to the Executive, these measures, agreed by the Interministerial Commission for the Development of the Artist Statute, have been approved to comply with the measures contained in the aforementioned regulations on deductions. In this regard, Rodríguez has indicated that, according to the inter-ministerial commission, a total of 46 of the 58 agreed measures have been implemented.
Exactly this Tuesday, the Royal Decree reached the Congress of Deputies, to which the Council of Ministers gave the green light on January 10, and which lowers the requirements for days of contribution, so that artists and technicians can access unemployment benefits, in addition to allowing the collection of the old-age pension compatible with any artistic activity that generates economic returns.
It was Yolanda Díaz, Minister of Labor and Social Economy and Second Vice President of the Government, who presided over the presentation in the House of Representatives of this new regulation that takes into account “one of the great demands of the sector” and the ordinary social protection system to create a specific unemployment benefit that takes into account the volatile nature of workers in the sector -artists, cameras, make-up artists, musicians, technicians…- in their employment relationships. According to the minister, it will be the employees themselves who choose which premium model they prefer. For example, within an 18-month period, they can opt for a 60-day contribution model for unemployment benefits totaling 120 days, or an unemployment scheme that reduces the need for contribution days to 180 – usually 360 – over a six-year period. “In these cases, he pointed out, people are entitled to benefits which, depending on the contributions, can reach 80 or 100% of the IPREM”. The duration of the provision will be four months and fits in with the perception of intellectual property and image rights.
The new rule also extends the compatibility of 100% of the retirement pension with artistic activity. Until now, this compatibility only reached activities that generated intellectual property rights; From the entry into force of this rule, it will also apply to activities such as a conference in connection with the presentation of a book and not only to the ownership rights of the work. And here too, not only artists or performers are considered, but also technicians or professionals who perform supporting activities. The beneficiaries of a non-contributory pension can also make it compatible with income from their artistic activity, provided they do not exceed the threshold of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary.
Source: La Verdad
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