Tag: self-employed

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 9-11 June 2023

 

A delightful second weekend of June ahead with all kinds of events to get involved with on Gran Canaria. The Harvest Fair arrives on the south, in El Tablero, patron saints’ fiestas in honour of San Antonio of Padua and San Pedro are happening around the island, Corpus Christi salt carpets and processions are held this Sunday, markets and music festivals as well as sporting events. Hopefully the weather will sustain all these wonderful festivities and happenings in the glorious outdoors, on which so much depends on this little island.

Menas Case: Foundation Siglo XXI directors allegedly filed false invoices, unrealistic expenses and repeatedly drew funds from ATMs, meant for the care of migrant children, even charging botox facial treatments and posh restaurant bills to foundation debit cards

A comprehensive analysis conducted by Group I of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police yielded scandalous results, writes Spanish language daily Canarias7, regarding the alleged irregular use of the public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied minors, by the suspected to have been perpetrated by centres managed by the Foundation Social Response Siglo XXI on Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. In this case, driven by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, investigators discovered that the director of the Guiniguada centre charged the NGO responsible for €1,500 worth of beauty treatments and €1,113 for bills at top restaurants including Vinófilos, El Vasco de Vegueta, and Triciclo.

 
 

 

Centre-Right Pact Between Regionalists (CC) And Resident Conservatives (PPAV) Returns Marco Aurelio Perez As Southern Mayor

The conservative Partido Popular-Agrupación de Vecinos (PP-AV) and the right of centre regionalist Coalición Canaria (CC) have this Thursday signed a local government pact that will shape the future of the southern Gran Canaria tourism municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The alliance, dubbed a “Pact for Stability and Socioeconomic Progress of San Bartolomé Tirajana”, represents 60% of the votes cast in the municipality’s recent local elections, emphasised the  mayor-elect, Marco Aurelio Pérez (PP-AV), who returns for the third time to lead the local council responsible for some of the most important tourism areas on the island, including Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés and San Agustín.

 
 

 

Local Government Coalition Agreement Maspalomas and the South of Gran Canaria

A governing coalition pact has been finalised in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The Popular Party–Agrupación de Vecinos (PP-AV) conservative residents party is to join forces with regionalist centre-right Coalición Canaria (CC) to govern the main tourist municipality on Gran Canaria for the next four years. Marco Aurelio Pérez will serve as mayor for the entire four-year term, and the Popular Party will take charge of Employment, Sports, Roads and Infrastructure, and Human Resources, among other areas. The regionalists, led by Alejandro Marichal, will oversee Urban Planning, Economy and Finance, and Tourism as their main departments.

 
 

 

Storm Óscar Latest: Government of the Canary Islands Declares Rain Alert for Western Islands and Gran Canaria

A storm system, dubbed Óscar, has formed over the last few days over the mid-north Atlantic, unusual for this time of year, and has led to concern from meteorologists and journalists as it passes south of the Azores, its tail should reach The Canary Islands, before the system heads northeast towards mainland Spain.  Advisory warnings have been issued in expectation of heavy rainfall, primarily in the Western Isles of the Canary Islands Archipelago, though some rainfall is also expected to reach Gran Canaria over the next couple of days.  It seems unlikely that any major consequences will stem from the bad weather, however these things can be unpredictable and so every precaution is taken to ensure people are informed and kept safe.

 
 

 

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On March 10 the deadline period for requesting direct aid for Canary Islands small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and self-employed (Autonomos) started and will be open until April

The first day of the Canary Islands deadline period for requesting direct aid for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and self-employed (Autonomos) saw 1,147 claims processed through the four chambers of commerce throughout the autonomous community “and endless calls” aimed primarily at resolving questions and doubts. The extraordinary financial aid measure, launched by the Canary Islands Government, has an budget of €84 million, aimed at alleviating damages within the sectors most affected by the covid-19 pandemic response and, according to the regional president, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Employment, Elena Máñez, will take effect in “a few days” time.

 
 

 

Of the more than 1,000 files presented on March 10, 369 were from self-employed people without salaried employees, for a line of aid endowed with a budget of €18 million. 778 applications were from small and medium-sized companies and freelancers with employees, for whom €66 million has been set aside, according to data provided by the Chamber of Commerce of Gran Canaria.
The bulk of the “endless calls” received on Wednesday at the chambers of commerce were aimed at resolving doubts, especially regarding the justification for losses being claimed against. To access the funds, companies are required to have suffered a drop in income of at least 30% and need to demonstrate cessation of activity. In addition, as indicated by the Lanzarote Chamber, many businessmen wanted to know the possibility of making these aids compatible with subsidies offered by other administrations. A total of 220 calls were answered on Wednesday and the numbers are expected to increase over the coming days.  The application deadline lasts for 20 days from march 10 to April 8 2021.
The Fuerteventura Chamber reported the same large number of enquiries last week. Its president, Antonio Rodríguez Marichal, indicated that 45 applications were processed on the first day in a day when “the phones did not stop ringing.” He described the Government initiative to have the chambers to manage these subsidies as “real success” due to their permeability in the business fabric of the islands and hoped that they can also be collaborating entities to help channel the 11,000 million of aid announced by the State
A special phone line number has been enabled to answer all these calls regarding direct aid, 900 909 519, which is attended by almost 120 people from the four chambers of commerce, who received an intensive training course. Almost half of the staff (57) are in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Chamber, which serves the four islands of that province, while another 39 staff are on Gran Canaria, 10 on Fuerteventura, and 12 on Lanzarote.
Despite the significant increase in the volume of calls registered, according to the Ministry of Employment “there were no serious problems” during the first day on Wednesday March 10 although they did acknowledge that there were “intermittent cuts” on the Government websites where applications are entered. However, according to some users who tried to do their processing directly, the pages were without service “for hours.”
The deadline for submitting direct aid applications will be open until April 8 and files that are correctly completed will be attended to in order of arrival. Subsidies can be obtained by companies that prove a loss of income of at least 30% in the last semester of 2020 compared to the previous year and the amount of the same – which ranges between 1,000 euros and 25,000 euros – will take into account number of employees of the applicant company. The €84 million that the Government of the Canary Islands has advanced to alleviate the damages incurred by SMEs and the self-employed will be charged to the European Union’s “React program”. Another €80 million will be added to this item to pay the IBI property taxes of tourist establishments.

? Importante ‼️
Las solicitudes de ayudas se pueden presentar a partir del 10 de marzo y exclusivamente por estas dos vías:
✅ Autónomos sin personas asalariadas:https://t.co/jJCmoR5K4K
✅ Pymes y autónomos con personas asalariadas:https://t.co/P8HSKn4U8R pic.twitter.com/VGXhXEC3IG
— Economía Gobcan (@EcoGobCan) March 9, 2021

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Contributions increase for Spanish self-employed workers despite losing €60 billion due to pandemic

The Association of self-employed workers (La Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Autónomos, ATA) has complained about the rise in the Social Security contributions rate for 2020, which was applied from October after having been postponed back when the pandemic began.
“The Ministry has been insensitive to the self-employed”,  the president of ATA, Lorenzo Amor, declared this Monday saying that the rate hike applied “has punished 3.2 million self-employed.”

 
 

 

Amor stressed that “now is not the time to carry out quota increases as a result of a pact agreed in 2018, when the economy was growing at 3% and when it was impossible to foresee that it would currently be falling by 12%. Freelancers don’t deserve this treatment”.
Social Security sources have explained that this rise in the contribution rates of the special regime for self-employed workers (RETA) was contemplated in an agreement reached between the Government and self-employed organisations back in 2018.
By virtue of this pact, which established greater protection for this group pending a reform of the RETA, the contribution rate was progressively raised over four years, from 30% in 2019 to 31% in 2022.
Last October there was an increase in contribution rates of three tenths, going from 0.7% to 0.8% for any cessation of activity and from 0.9% to 1.1% for professional contingencies, adding to the existing contingencies rate (28.3%) this has raised the total contribution rate to 30.3%.
According to the Ministry for Social Security, this rise represents an increase of €3 per month for most self-employed people, while, according to the ATA, it will raise the quota paid by the self-employed in September by between €6 and €24.
To this will be added, over the next few months, the rise corresponding to 2021, with the rate of contribution for cessation of activity rising one tenth, to 0.9%, and the professional contingencies rate by 0,2%, to 1.3%, reaching a total applicable rate of 30.6%.
There is a Government RETA reform on the table to charge self-employed people Social Security on the basis of their actual income, being negotiated with the social agents, but opinion among the self-employed seems quite divided.
ATA say that, according to their members’ barometer data, 43.9% of self-employed respondents are in favour of contributing based on real income and 35.9% are against the move, while 20.2% do not know or have not responded.

28.8% declare having suffered losses of more than € 30,000
With less than a month till Christmas, and night curfews in place across much of Spain, with lock down confinements, regional closures and considerable restrictions on hotels, leisure and commerce, the ATA barometer responses are a reflection of the extremely complicated situation that self employed people are going through this year. The self-employed have lost an estimated €60 billion so far throughout the pandemic.  28.8% of the self-employed people surveyed by ATA state that they have suffered losses of more than €30,000.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL BAROMETER HERE (In Spanish)
SITUATION OF YOUR BUSINESS CURRENTLY
Given the uncertainty the ATA are working to explore the real situation of self-employed workers and their activities at a time when practically every regional autonomous community in Spain have implemented restrictive measures on activities that directly affect the self-employed, such as hospitality and trade.
Currently, say the association, three out of four freelancers have some kind of restrictions on their business. Around 20% of the more than 2,000 self-employed members who were surveyed, 19.3% specifically, have their businesses and/or activities completely closed at the moment, which, according to the ATA, could be extrapolated to almost 620,000 self-employed people throughout Spain.  4.1%  of respondents claim to have been closed for business since last March. (Table 1).  56.5% say they have opened for business, but that they are working at 50% capacity.
 

Only 15.7% of the self-employed surveyed by ATA say that they are open and functioning normally and 3% even admit that they are doing even better than before the pandemic.

The results point to (table 2) an overwhelming 84.9% of self-employed people having seen a reduction in their turnover compared to the previous year and for half of them, the fall has been more than 60% (graph 2). 9.7% say that turnover has been maintained and 3.2% say that their turnover has increased despite everything.
 

The estimated loss for the self-employed in 2020 could stand at more than €60 billion. 28.8% of those surveyed say that their losses will exceed 30,000€, (Table 14) mainly in the events industry, entertainment (children ‘s entertainment, nightclubs, cultural and and other show) and to a lesser extent, the commerce sector.
11.1% of the self-employed who responded say they have made no losses this year.

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