Are you an autónomo in Spain who isn’t planning to work for a period of time, or indefinitely? When summer rolls around, many self-employed teachers and other workers decide to pause their autónomo status. Why would we do this? The main reason is to save money on social security payments. If we aren’t bringing in any income, the logic goes, why should we pay social security? The official term for deregistering is called “darse de baja” or just “la baja.” Yes, The Low! Here I’ll explain how to do it. It’s a simple process, but if your situation is more complex, please seek the advice of a lawyer.

To darme de baja or not to darme de baja?

No, keep paying: The number one argument for continuing to pay into social security is so you can retire sooner. If you take a break from paying, those months don’t count toward your retirement countdown clock. So if you’re really worried about this, just keep paying your monthly fee.

No, keep paying: If you’ve received some sort of government assistance or grants, check the conditions of that money to be sure you won’t owe any money back if you deregister. Sometimes the government gives money on the condition that we have autónomo status.

No, keep paying: Another important consideration is if you’re a new autónomo with a reduced rate, you won’t want to stop paying because as soon as you deregister, you lose your status and will have to pay the full fee when you register again. Of course, the new autónomo fee is much lower (80 euros a month), so it should be affordable to pay it even if you take a break from working for a month or two.

What about the rest of us who don’t want to pay upwards of 300 euros a month when we aren’t earning income?

Yes, darte de baja: For all normal situations after you’ve started paying the normal fee, it’s safe to deregister. 

Keep in mind that you’ll have to register again when you start earning income. The government doesn’t know if your baja is temporary or permanent, so you need to go through the process of registering and deregistering each time you want to take a break. If you deregister in the middle of the month, you will only have to pay the corresponding prorated amount to social security — but ¡ojo! You can only do this three times per year. After the third time, you have to pay the full month’s fee. (It seems like a headache to go through this process so many times a year, but apparently people do it!)

❗️ DATO CLAVE: la Administración no distingue entre las bajas temporales o definitivas, por lo que estos trámites los deberás llevar a cabo cada vez que desees darte de baja o de alta en el RETA. 

How to cancel/pause your autónomo status

As with every process in Spain, there is some bureaucracy involved. Fortunately it can all be done online in a half hour or less. Ready to get it done? Let’s get started!

1. Deregister with Hacienda (the tax authority). Yes, it’s true that we’re cancelling or pausing our social security payment, but Hacienda needs to know about it first. The Social Security office will double check your baja with Hacienda to proceed with your deregistration there. You’ll be removing yourself from the official registry of economic activity. Of course, you still may have some tax obligations – don’t forget to pay your quarterly taxes for the months that you did invoice or earn money!

• Click to open the Agencia Tributaria website and you’ll want to choose Modelo 037. It’s a simpler version of 036, but you can do either one. Log in via your Cl@ve PIN or electronic certificate.  
• Fill out 101, 102 and 103 with your ID number (NIE), last name and first name. Middle name goes with first name, if you have one. 
• In the first section, under C) Baja check the box “Baja en el censo de empresarios, profesionales y retenedores” and choose the first option “Cese de actividad…” and then add the effective date. (It should be in the future – don’t do this retroactively!) Also remember that the day goes first, then the month, then the year (ahem, estadounidenses). 
• You don’t have to fill anything out in section 2, or on the following pages. Stay on page 1 and go all the way to the bottom to sign the form. Put your city’s name in Lugar, today’s date, “Interesado” in the dropdown menu since you’re filling out the form for yourself, and then type your full name in Firmado. 
• Head back up to the top and click Enviar on the right. When it goes through, be sure to download a copy of the form you filled out for your records. If you want to double check it went through, go back to the Agencia Tributaria homepage to Area Personal and “Mis expedientes” and it should show up in the list under “En tramitación.” Step one is done!

2. Deregister with Social Security. I have to admit that every year when I do this, the Social Security website makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Finding the section to do the Baja is like navigating a labyrinth. But I finally found it once again in the Sede Electrónica under “Ciudadanos – Afiliación, Inscripción y Modificaciones.” And apparently you can also access it via this page in Importass (yes, this makes me giggle every time). But look, I’ve made it easy for you! Click here to go directly to the Baja website. 

• Click “Solicitar Baja.” There you’ll log in with your Cl@ve PIN or digital certificate.
• The first question you’ll be asked is the motive for your cancellation. In your case, it’s probably not option two (retirement or disability), but should you choose voluntary or cessation of activity? The answer is, it doesn’t really matter. The only thing to take into account is if you plan on requesting unemployment benefits, you have to choose “cese de actividad.” Unemployment is a whole different process that I won’t go into here, and involves a lot of paperwork, but it needs to be clear that you didn’t just decide to stop working, that there was some economic reason. But in the case of a summer or temporary baja, it isn’t important. I always choose “cese de actividad” because it’s true, nobody wants classes in the summer, my work dries up. So you’re safe choosing option three.

• Next, you need to choose the date, which is the projected last day of your work activity. This year I’ll put July 25th.  Important note here: you can request the cancellation up to 60 days beforehand, and if you’re coming close to your end date, you can do it up to 3 days after. Don’t worry, the system won’t let you enter a date more than 60 days in the future, and it will give you a warning message if you’re more than 3 days past the deadline. In the case that you request the cancellation past the 3-day deadline, you’ll have to pay the full month’s social security fee. So enter the date and continue.

• On the next page you have the option to pay the full month’s social security fee or only up until the end date. I always choose the partial month option – hey, it’s nice to pay a little less! 
• The next page will have you check your tax codes (CNAE and IAE), which you should have from when you did the alta with Social Security and Hacienda at the beginning of your activity. The codes should already be correct, but double check anyway. You will choose “Agencia Tributaria” from the dropdown list in most cases, though if you live in País Vasco maybe double check you don’t belong to one of the other tax authorities there.
• On the last page all you need to do is confirm, sign and submit! Be sure to click “Descargar documentación” to download the PDF generated at the end of the process.

If you want to be sure you did everything correctly, in the next few days go back to the Social Security website and request a Vida Laboral report, which shows all the time you’ve been working in Spain.

That was easy, wasn’t it? When you start working again, you’ll start the whole process over by doing the alta mentioned above, just like when you registered the first time.

Now go enjoy your summer of freedom! 🌞