When hiring employees, we must take into account certain aspects that will directly impact the relationship established between each worker and the company. One of the most important is registering a worker in Social Security, a procedure that is the employer’s responsibility.
Today we will learn how we should make this procedure, and also all the previous steps that we must carry out in the Social Security to be able to hire our employees.
In order to formalize a contract with one or more workers, we must meet certain requirements and follow certain procedures. In general terms, the sequence is always the same: obtain the Contribution Account Code (CCC), that the workers are affiliated with in the Social Security System; perform the registration of workers; register the contract with the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) and pay the corresponding monthly payments to Social Security.
Register an employee with Social Security: Previous steps
There are two previous steps that only apply in certain circumstances: one is for employers who have never hired staff and another for workers who have never been hired.
- Registration as an entrepreneur in Social Security: The first thing you should do is apply to the General Treasury of the Social Security (TGSS), through its Provincial Directorates or the corresponding Administrations, for your registration as an entrepreneur in the Social Security System.
- Affiliation of workers: obtain the Social Security Affiliation Number for those workers who are hired by an employer for the first time in their lives.
And then there are three obligatory steps in all contracts:
- Registrations, discharges, and modifications in the worker’s data: You will be obliged to communicate, within the deadlines established for this purpose, the registrations, discharges, and changes in the data of the employees who are going to start working under your service or if they cease doing it.
- Submission of contracts at the State Public Employment Service: You must register the contracts in the SEPE within 10 days from the date of registration.
- Payments of Social Security contributions: You must maintain the registration of your workers as long as the employment relationship is not terminated and make the payment of the contributions contemplated in the payroll of your workers.
Let’s see these steps in detail:
1. Entrepreneur registration
The first thing to do is to register as an entrepreneur to obtain your Contribution Account Code (CCC).
The registration is an administrative act that you have to carry out in the General Treasury of the Social Security, by which you are assigned as an entrepreneur a number for the identification and control of your obligations with the Social Security. Said number is considered the first and main Contribution Account Code, and it is to which all those others that may be assigned to you as an entrepreneur will be linked. The request is made using the TA.6 Form, (all these forms are only available in Spanish).
It is important to note that as an entrepreneur you must request a Contribution Account Code (TA.7 Form) in each of the provinces where you carry out your activities, as well as in certain cases in which it is necessary to identify groups of workers with contribution peculiarities.
Methods and deadlines to notify the registration:
You must request your registration as a company before the start of any activity in the Administration of the General Treasury of Social Security that is closest to your registered office.
Documentation that you must submit:
- Official application form.
- Identification document of the owner of the company.
- Document issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance assigning the Tax Identification Number in which the Economic Activity of the Company is recorded.
At the time of applying for registration, you must state the managing entity and/or the collaborating entity/entities for which you opt, both for the protection of work-related contingencies and occupational diseases and for the coverage of the economic benefit for temporary disability derived from common contingencies.
Variation of data and extinction of the company:
As an entrepreneur, you are also responsible for notifying the General Treasury of Social Security of any variations and changes that may occur:
- Name of the natural person or the name of the legal entity.
- House address.
- The entity that covers the contingencies of accidents at work and occupational diseases and, in this case, the economic benefit for temporary disability.
- Economic activity.
- Any other variation that affects the data previously declared regarding the registration of the company or the opening of a Contribution Account.
- You will also have to communicate the extinction of the company and/or the temporary or definitive cessation of its activity.
Both data variations and extinction or cessation will be reported in the TA.7 Form within six calendar days following the day on which they occur.
The change of entity that covers the contingencies of accidents at work and occupational diseases and/or the economic benefit for temporary disability will be submitted ten calendar days in advance of its effectiveness.
The employer or, as the case may be, the contribution account of the same will be considered to be in a situation of temporary cessation if all its workers have been notified without informing the General Treasury of the Social Security or the Administration about the termination of the company or the cessation of its activities. After twelve months without demonstrating its continuity, an ex officio file will be initiated so that, based on the duly justified allegations of the employer or the other facts accredited in it, the appropriate resolution is taken on the extinction/cessation, or on the continuity of the company.
If you want more information about this procedure you can consult the Social Security Electronic Headquarters.
2. Affiliation of the workers to hire
When incorporating new workers into your company you have to know whether or not they are affiliated with Social Security.
The affiliation, if it did not exist previously, is an administrative act, which you have to carry out as an employer, prior to registration, through which the General Treasury of Social Security recognizes the condition of including, in the Social Security System, the natural person who for the first time carries out an activity that determines their inclusion and is assigned a Social Security Number (NUSS). Employees whose employer does not comply with this obligation may apply for their affiliation.
The application for registering, in the TA.1 Form, will be addressed to the Provincial Directorate of the Social Security Treasury or Administration of the same province of the company in which the employee provides services is domiciled, or in which the establishment of the self-employed worker is located. Visit the Workers Affiliation page if you want more information about this process.
3. Registration, discharge, and changes in the data of your workers
These procedures will be carried out by presenting Form TA.2/S.
The self-employed and SMEs with less than 15 hired workers must carry out these procedures electronically through the Red Directo System, being able to manage it directly or through a labor advisor. This system allows you to quickly carry out procedures such as registrations, deregistrations, data modifications, communications of medical registrations or discharges, and temporary disability or confirmation reports.
Registration
The application for registration with Social Security will basically contain the following data:
- Name or company name of the employer enabling the registration.
- Entrepreneur’s Contribution Account Code.
- Social Security Regime.
- Last name and first name of the worker.
- Social Security number of the worker.
- DNI
- Address of the worker.
- Start date of the activity.
- Contribution group.
- Type of contract and coefficient of working hours, if applicable.
- Occupation (in the cases indicated in the Fourth Additional Provision of Law 42/2006 of December 28, 2006)
Deregistration
The request for deregistration, by which the legal relationship with Social Security is extinguished, must contain the data related to:
- Name or company name of the employer who enables the cancellation.
- Entrepreneur’s Contribution Account Code.
- Social Security Regime.
- Last name and first name of the worker.
- Social Security number of the worker.
- DNI.
- Address of the worker.
- Date of cessation of the activity
- Cause of the withdrawal.
Data modifications
You must also communicate changes in the identification, address, or work data of your employees.
The modification request, in addition to the identifying data of the worker and the employer, will contain the data subject to modification, and those variations that affect working conditions must be communicated, like:
- Type of contract and coefficient of working hours.
- AT and EP caption.
- Contribution group variation.
- Variation date.
- Occupation.
Submission deadlines:
- Registrations: Up to 60 calendar days prior to the start of the employment relationship.
- Deregistration and data changes: 3 calendar days.
Here, you can find all the information related to workers’ affiliation, termination of affiliation, and data changes.
4. Registration and communication of the employment contract
Access the Contrat@ procedure.
Within 10 days, you must send a copy of the contract to the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) for registration.
In 2017 there were 4 valid types of work contracts: permanent, temporary, training and internships. Royal Decree Law 16/2013, of December 20, on measures to promote stable hiring and improve the employability of workers, reduced the number of contracts from 42 to these 4.
In the event that the contracts are not formalized in writing, the employer is also obliged to communicate the contract made within the same period.
5. Payment of contribution quotas
In addition to paying salaries, as an employer, you are responsible for paying your own contribution and that of your workers to Social Security, for which you will deduct from the salary of your workers the contributions that correspond to them at the time of your payment. You will have to pay the installments within the month following their accrual.
The presentation of the contribution documents for the deposit of the installments can be made at any Financial Institution (Banks, Savings Banks, Credit Cooperatives, or Rural Savings Banks) authorized to act as a Collection Office.
Documentation to present:
- Quotation settlement receipt (RLC)
- List of named workers (RNT)
This documentation must be submitted electronically through the Social Security Direct Network system. The self-employed and SMEs must communicate the bases, deductions, and compensation of all their workers for each of their contribution accounts. They must also calculate the total contribution of the contribution account (TC2 totals) and the amount to be paid (TC1 total).
In 2014, the Cret@ System came into operation, Law 34/2014, of December 26, on measures regarding the settlement and payment of Social Security contributions, which comes to simplify the operation. It is no longer necessary to calculate the total contribution of workers or the result of the settlement since this calculation is provided through an online draft, which only needs to be reviewed and confirmed. It came to replace the TC1.
In the case of companies with a single worker registered in the period, you must fill in the box of the contribution bulletin identified as “TC2 ABBREVIATED”. It can only be completed if the company meets the requirements for it (a single worker during the month being liquidated, without changes in the contract code and AT/EP heading).
How much should you contribute?
The amounts to pay to Social Security, called quotas, are calculated by applying to the worker’s contribution base the percentage or type of contribution that corresponds to each protected contingency. These quotas are reflected in the monthly payroll of each worker and in Forms TC1 and TC2.
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