A new law passed this week, will give self-employed workers (known as autonomo) more protection against their homes and other key assets if things go wrong with their business.
The vice president of the national association of autónomos, Celia Ferrero, said: "It is vital that they have watered down the risk; this new law gives greater ability for professionals to get back on their feet again in difficult economic circumstances.”
“The risk is also reduced, not just for the self-employed but also for their families”, added Ferrero, "it is key to encouraging new start-ups as this change it takes away a bit of the sense of insecurity and liability."
The new law sets out the basic rules for protecting self-employed people's homes and assets. The text says autonomos can protect their home as long as it is valued at less than 300,000 euros, or 450,000 euros if they live in a city that has over a million population.
For assets, other than homes, not to be frozen when an autónomo runs up debts, they need to have met basic requirements; i.e. to have registered it on the official register of assets, and the value of those assets cannot be greater than the volume of business done over the last two years.
This means that the self-employed will need to make a list of their assets and register them at the Registro Mercantil as Emprendedor de Responsabilidad Limitada.
The new legislation is known as the Create and Grow Law (Ley Crea y Crece). Another separate key feature is the ability for people to start a new limited company (SL) with just one euro of capital as opposed to the 3,000 euros required now.
