Spain: invoicing €25,000 as a self-employed TRADE worker isn't the same as earning €25,000

TRADE self-employed: invoicing €25,000 isn't the same as earning €25,000

How much is left in your account if you swap a €25,000 gross salary for monthly invoices as a self-employed worker? That's the question an IT professional is asking after receiving an offer from a start-up with 45 employees, all of them registered as economically dependent self-employed workers (known in Spain as TRADE). The HR manager was explicit about the reason: saving on payroll costs because the company is very young. In other words: the same work, the same dependence and considerably fewer rights.

The calculation starts from a salary of €25,000 gross per year with 16% income tax (IRPF), leaving around €1,615 net per month. On the other side, invoicing as a self-employed worker means adding the social security contribution —between €250 and €300 a month by her estimate— and subtracting income tax, which in her case she puts at around 20%. The conclusion that emerges from the conversation is that matching that net pay would require invoicing well above those €25,000.

What exactly is a TRADE and why it matters

The figure of the Economically Dependent Self-Employed Worker (Trabajador Autónomo Económicamente Dependiente, TRADE) is regulated by Ley 20/2007, of 11 July. A TRADE is someone who carries out a for-profit economic activity on a regular, personal, direct and predominant basis for a single client on whom they depend economically, receiving at least 75% of their income from that client in the form of earnings from employment and economic or professional activities.

On top of that come three requirements that draw a paradox: having no employees of their own, not contracting or subcontracting any part of the activity to third parties, and not performing the work in the same undifferentiated way as the company's other employees. In other words, the law demands formal independence from someone who, in practice, works in the client's offices and on the client's schedule.

The result is a hybrid figure that some describe as an employee without labour rights. The legal definition itself gives it away: 75% economic dependence, but without the protection of the Workers' Statute.

Unemployment, sickness and retirement: what you lose

The key question is what happens to your coverage when the work dries up or you go on sick leave. As a self-employed worker, unemployment and temporary incapacity protection exists, but it requires contributing on higher bases. Some point out that contributing on the maximum of the minimum base —around €840— can give access to benefits similar to an employee's, provided the volume of invoicing allows it and the work is stable.

The problem is that this coverage costs money. And it's paid out of invoicing that, at best, matches the gross of a salary. The numbers don't add up without raising the price.

The false self-employment trap with a legal label

The offer includes conditions that worsen the diagnosis: working hours well above the legal 40, on-site work and invoicing controlled by the company. In that context, the TRADE label works as a formal cover for a relationship that looks suspiciously like a salary without rights.

The advice that keeps coming up is blunt: don't leave a job with fully paid social security contributions and pay at the end of the month for an adventure of this kind. And if the project interests you, negotiate as an independent self-employed worker with your own price.

The question was how much you take home at the end of the month. The uncomfortable answer is that, under these conditions, probably less. And without a safety net underneath.