Many consider whether it is better for them to start a business, look for self-employment, or pursue both options simultaneously. There are also employees who are considering becoming self-employed or vice versa. There are many similarities, but the differences between employees and self-employed They are also important.
The differences between employees and self-employed workers occur in different fields. We find them fundamentally in their different legal regime, but they also have relevant implications in the way everyone faces their daily lives. Let's see the main ones.
Commercial and civil contracts versus employment contracts
Both earn income by working, but their work is legally reflected in different ways. The employee has a Work contract that inserts you into an organization. In exchange for his efforts he receives as remuneration the salary, which is documented through a payroll.
This employment contract creates a employment relationship which, in addition, must operate within limits set fundamentally by labor laws (especially the Workers' Statute) and collective agreements. In this relationship, conflicts that reach the courts are resolved in the social jurisdiction.
In the case of the self-employed, its source of income is the execution of contracts, such as those for the sale of goods or the provision of services. Legally, they are contracts regulated by the commercial and civil laws. In general, this type of contract is somewhat less regulated and there is a wider margin for the will of the parties. Conflicts that reach court are resolved in the civil jurisdiction.
The different Social Security regime
In matters of social contributions, employees have a double quote, at the expense of the company and at the expense of the worker. For their part, the self-employed have only one, for which they are personally responsible, and the possibility of choosing the basewho want between a minimum and a maximum.
However, we must not forget that we are talking about a legal obligation. A different question is Who ends up paying the cost? of the quotes. For example, there are sectors in which the self-employed person does not have any margin to pass on the quote to their clients, while in others they can raise prices to cover their costs without this reducing their demand. And the same thing happens in the relationship between an employee and his employer.
In terms of benefits of Social SecurityIn general, self-employed people have more difficulties accessing them. The first reason is that their quotes are usually lower. By contributing less, you are entitled to lower benefits.
Secondly, the requirements to access them are usually somewhat stricter for the self-employed. However, there is a tendency towards approximation between the two regimes, as we are seeing in the latest reform.
Thirdly, the self-employed have a difficulty in applying for some benefits, such as the potential loss of customers. For example, they tend to speed up recovery times as much as possible to be discharged.
Different way to declare your income
The employee has to declare his income as personal work performance. Additionally, a portion of your payroll is subject to withholding. They generally have very little room to plan the tax impact of their employment relationships. However, they can deduct some necessary expenses such as, for example, legal defense costs related to their work or dues to unions and professional associations.
For their part, the self-employed have to declare these incomes as income from economic activities. They can do this through the direct estimation system, that is, based on accounting information. Alternatively, some self-employed workers can take advantage of the module system, in which there are fewer formal obligations and payment is based on an estimate made based on certain magnitudes of the business. On the other hand, they pay a part of the personal income tax that corresponds to them through installment payments.
Salaried and self-employed people differ in the way they organize work
The employee is inserted into the heart of an organization for which he works. From that moment on, he has a dependency relationship. It is your employer who must give you instructions and provide the necessary material means.
The self-employed organizes the media on its own materials and the way of organizing their work. You can also coordinate it with other people you hire and even with the collaboration of people in your family. The result of this activity will be the goods or services offered in the market.
In that sense, a part of those material means necessary to develop the activity will be financed with funds from the self-employed person. Therefore, The self-employed person not only puts his work at the service of the business, but also risks a part of his personal assets in it..
That is very important to focus on future retirement. You must organize the means you have in order to produce, but also in order to organize your retreat. It will be considered whether it is best to liquidate the assets and settle the debts, if it is advisable to sell the company, if there are possibilities of family succession, etc.
The different conditions of variability of your income
The remuneration of employees is subject to different variability conditions:
- The increases or, where appropriate, agreed reductions
- The achievement or not of salary incentives
- The possibility of obtaining professional promotions
- A possible dismissal
- Tax reforms…
For its part, the income of the self-employed is subject to different sources of variability. On the one hand, we find those that affect their costs. Among them we find:
- Costs of obtaining refinancing
- Tax reforms
- Variations in the rents to be paid for the premises
- Changes in raw material and energy prices
- Salary increases for the staff in charge
- Process innovations…
Regarding income, the main sources of variability are:
- Campaigns marketing
- Changes in market conditions and, in particular, those of competitors
- The economic moment
- Technological changes and, in particular, the appearance of alternative products or new developments in ours
- Variations in the prices of other products that compete or are complementary to ours
- Tax reforms
The different legal status of employees and self-employed workers
Both employees and self-employed workers are subject to a particular statute. That of employees is mainly related to the status of workers which focuses on labor relations. It delimits the conditions under which these labor relations must be developed and regulates employment contracts. In addition, it develops the right to collective representation and regulates collective bargaining.
He Self-Employed Work Statute It has a different intention. Until its approval, there was a significant regulatory dispersion. With this law, what was sought was to seek the most systematic and unitary regulation of self-employment as possible. That is, a rule that groups together some of its main obligations and rights.
Absence versus possible presence of partners
While salaried workers do not have partners, the self-employed may or may not have them. On the one hand, industrial partners of collective and limited partnerships are autonomous, as well as some cases of partners of civil partnerships. In all these cases, the concurrence of several people is necessary to establish the company.
In the societies of capital You can be self-employed by having partners. The person in charge of managing the company will be if he also has effective control of it. However, public limited companies can be sole proprietorships.
Finally, it is possible to develop an activity without partners as an individual entrepreneur. They also have the qualification of self-employed workers.
Although there are also similarities, there are many differences between self-employed workers and employees. The rules that regulate their respective regimes tend to approach on some issues, but The most important distinctive features of each group will remain.
Fountain: sage
