PP and VOX face the self-employed: what will truly change

PP and VOX promise relief for the self-employed; the numbers say otherwise

The next government will not save the self-employed. Neither did the previous one. This is the conclusion that repeats in the debate, where it is taken for granted that whoever promises otherwise is lying or has not looked at the accounts. The question circulating among SMEs and the self-employed is not whether there will be a miracle, but how much of what was promised survives the first Budget. And the precedent does not invite optimism.

What do PP and VOX promise the self-employed?

To begin with, less than what is said. As one participant recalls, the last PP government approved the flat rate and a reduced contribution for young entrepreneurs, a demand that is now remembered with distance. According to their version, the effect was limited and the context – 2011 and 2012, with the economy in full hangover – ate up any margin. "It wasn't a big deal," they summarize.

The same question remains on the table: will the contribution fee be lowered, will bureaucracy be cut, will any tax be touched? No one signs a calendar. Neither the majority nor the minority partner has put figures on a tax cut for the self-employed, and during the campaign, the promise hangs in the air.

What VOX has already done in the regions where it governs

There, there is paper. In Andalusia, subsidies to UGT and CCOO have been halved, according to the message shared in the debate, and in the territories where the party supports the PP, there is talk of lightening administrative fat and removing bureaucratic requirements. The fine print reduces enthusiasm: they are partial measures, insufficient to move the needle, according to the participants themselves.

The other side quickly appears. According to the news cited in the thread, the Junta de Extremadura has added 44 senior positions and the first Andalusian coalition government, another 13, while a private dinner at the foot of the Giralda was paid for with 30,000 euros of public money. Cutting on one side and fattening the structure on the other is not exactly slimming down the State.

Regional Personal Income Tax: where fiscal relief is played out

A piece of data provided in the debate: each region decides its 50% of Personal Income Tax. A good part of the supposed relief does not depend on the central government, but on the territorial executives. And the picture that is drawn is not generous. The rates being handled place Andalusia's regional rate between 9.5% and 22.5%; Asturias starts at 10% and the Balearic Islands at 9%. Only Madrid stands out for going down, according to the same source.

As argued in the thread, no region governed by the center-right has signed a reduction that is truly noticeable on a self-employed person's paycheck. The headline of the tax cut coexists with rates that continue to weigh the same, and this discrepancy explains why many do not believe the promise.

Why don't the self-employed expect anything?

A participant offers an uncomfortable diagnosis: the political class views the self-employed as someone who just wants to evade taxes, and forgets that their salary – and everyone else's – depends on the productive fabric. This suspicion explains, according to this view, why the self-employed end up at the back of the queue.

The debate points out that there are more votes in a pension increase than in a contribution fee reduction, a hierarchy that no one disputes. The result, it is concluded, is a policy that treats the entrepreneur as a taxpayer to be scrutinized and not as an asset to be protected.

With these ingredients, the most repeated forecast is slow, partial relief, doled out drop by drop between taxes and procedures. Nothing that changes the day-to-day for those who wake up early to invoice. The window exists, but it will depend on how much pressure the minority partner can withstand before the narrative prevails over the numbers.