About 160,000 self-employed people in the Basque Country can subscribe to new EPSVs this year

About 160,000 self-employed people in the Basque Autonomous Community (CAV) will be able to subscribe from this year to the EPSVs launched by the Basque government and the Chambers of Commerce of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa for this group, who will benefit from specific tax benefits included in the change in taxation in which the institutions operate.

This model of voluntary social security for the self-employed through the EPSV was presented this Wednesday during an event at the Bilbao Stock Exchange, in which the Minister of Finance and Finance took part, Noël d’Anjouthe presidents of the Chambers of Commerce of Gipuzkoa, Mauricio Arregui; from Bilbao, Jose Ignacio Zudaire; and the General Secretary of the Chamber of Álava, Olaia Arrieta.

During the event, the advisor recalled that his department had signed up December 2023 an agreement with the three Chambers of Commerce for the implementation of a supplementary social security system for the self-employed.

As explained, this year the Chambers have carried out a process to select the entities that will manage these plans –Bankoa Abanca, VidaCaixa, Caja Laboral Kutxa, Kutxabank, Mapfre and BBVA-, present at the event.

In principle, all plans are expected to be launched and implemented this month contributions minus personal taxwith the exception of one of the entities that will appear next year, and in principle most of it is common, although there may be some difference between the six plans depending on what is decided by each of them.

If this year is accepted with the current regulations in force, a self-employed person could contribute up to 8000 euros in the employment system and another 5000 at the individual.

This will vary by 2025when the new tax rules with incentives for this group would come into effect, so that this figure would come true 4,000 euros for self-employed persons without employees and 8000 euros if they have employees.

As the advisor explained, this group’s social security contributions have historically been ‘low’ on average and therefore the pensions they receive (with Average 1150.94 euros) are “clearly inferior” to the benefits workers receive, which reach average 2003.77 euros.

On behalf of Eusko Ganberak-Basque Chambers, the President of the Chamber of Bilbao, José Ignacio Zudaire, has emphasized the integration of these financial entities in this initiative, to the extent that “it aims to combat a historic deficit discovered among self-employed people and who also within that group aim to expand or generalize complementary social security.

For her part, the General Secretary of the Chamber of Álava, Olaia Arrieta, has stated that with the communication campaign of this initiative entitled “Your present is in your hands, why not your future?”The aim is to convey a “clear, accessible and effective” message for the self-employed.

As he noted, it is often a group that makes decisions “focused on today and not on tomorrow”Therefore, this initiative aims to be a ‘wake-up call’ for them to contribute to ‘generating their future well-being’.