How to bill if you are a self-employed psychologist in Spain?

Many Spanish psychologists practice as self-employed. Let's see how they should make the invoices.

Psychology is a science in charge of the study and analysis of the psyche and the processes that are part of it. But it is also a profession that requires great effort, perseverance and dedication, being the figure of the psychologist that of a professional whose services imply an economic retribution.

Many professionals work for the public administration or manage to be hired by a company or a psychology institute, but the truth is that the vast majority of psychologists will have to establish themselves in the public sector. the vast majority of psychologists will have to establish themselves as self-employed professionals in order to make a living. in order to survive, and for it they will have to be able to invoice their services. How to invoice if you are a self-employed psychologist in Spain? We are going to see it throughout this article.

Requirements to start billing as a self-employed psychologist

Before you can start dealing with patients or users and be able to invoice, you need to meet a number of prerequisites. And it is that to be self-employed and to be able to invoice as such, it will be necessary to carry out a series of previous steps..

In the first place, in order to work as a psychologist it is essential to be registered as a member of a professional association, which is a legal requirement to be able to practice. Besides it will be necessary to be registered in the Social Security.

Once this is done, and as long as we have the necessary qualifications to practice, we must register as self-employed with the Social Security and the Treasury, registering in the Tax on Economic Activities or IAE and filling out form 037 for self-employed (with the epigraph 776). Once this is done, we will be able to start invoicing.

From then on we will have to pay the monthly self-employed quota.It will also be necessary to have a fiscal domicile, which is necessary to be able to carry out the invoicing and to fill in the previous forms.

However, first of all it is necessary to take into account that if we work as employees hired by a company, it will not be necessary to carry out the invoicing procedures since we will receive a salary from the company in question. We will only need to invoice if we offer our services as freelancers or freelancers.

However, being linked to a company is not the same as being a freelancer, being linked to a company is not the same as being hired.It is common for companies to employ freelance professionals who invoice their services, in which case you would be working on your own account and it will be necessary to do so.

Other requirements to work in the clinic

In the case of being working in the clinic field, it will also be necessary to obtain the qualification as a health center (even if we carry out the professional activity in our own home), something that includes another series of formalities linked to the center and to the professional activity itself. The specific formalities will depend on whether we set up on our own or create a company..

Focusing on the first of the cases, we will have to have a book of income and expenses, the license of opening or activity, the discharge in the rate of residues, the quarterly declaration of the rent (model 115 in Treasury) and if we hired somebody we will also have to fill up the model 111, also quarterly.

As for the center, it will be necessary to obtain as we have said the sanitary registry. To do so, it will be necessary to make an application form addressed to the "Servei d'Autorització i Registre d'Entitats, Centres i Serveis Sanitaris", pay the fees, possess and present a rental contract of the property or a copy of the deeds, the DNI, and the technical project signed by a technician (including technical report and functional report).

It will be necessary to have an enabled space free of architectural barriers, an office of at least 8 square meters. It can only be shared by other professionals with the same activity and must be accessible from a public space, with a reception and waiting area, consultation and a service for patients and companions.

We must also be registered with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AGPD) in order to communicate and register the type of data with which we will work, provide security measures for the processing of patient data, have complaint forms and an informative sign in this regard, carry out occupational risk prevention and have liability insurance.

Make your own invoice as a psychologist in Spain

In itself, the realization of the invoice is relatively simpleIt is only necessary to take into account the different elements that must be included.

In the first place it must be made clear that the document that we are making is an invoice, being necessary that it appears in a visible way in the heading. After that we will have to incorporate the number of invoice that we are emitting, so that they can be ordered sequentially through the time.

We must also include the date of issue of the invoice in question. It may also be advisable to include the time, especially when we have several invoices of the same date.

Next we will have to indicate the basic data of both the issuer and the receiver of the invoiceThe sender is the professional and the receiver is the client or patient.

In the case of the issuer we will have to put our name and surname, DNI (or CIF in case of being a company) and fiscal address including town, province and postal code. In the case of the receiver, we must include name and surname, ID card number and address or fiscal address (also including town, province and postal code). If the receiver is a company, instead of the DNI, the CIF and the company name will be required.

Subsequently to these identification data, we will proceed to describe briefly the services for which we are charging and the number of units of that service that we have provided (e.g., we have provided three therapy sessions) and the unit price or price of each service. of that service that we have provided (for example, we have provided three therapy sessions) and the unit price or price of each of those services. It is also possible to indicate what we consider a unit, such as an hour of therapy. Next we will indicate the subtotal or the taxable base, that is to say the total of the price charged in gross.

Now we will have to indicate the taxes that will be charged on the invoice: VAT and income tax. However, it is important to bear in mind that the amount and the percentage of these taxes can vary enormously.. These withholdings have to be subtracted in the invoice itself from the taxable base, indicating both the percentage and the total amount in € withheld. After that, we will record the total amount of the invoice, which will be what we will receive after subtracting the relevant deductions.

Finally, we will have to record the ownership of the data file indicating who is responsible, the use that will be given and a brief list of the user's rights. In addition, in the case of being exempt of retentions we will have to mention it also in the invoice, indicating to what law this exemption obeys.

VAT on invoicing: exemptions

One of the main taxes that most professionals must take into account when invoicing is the Value Added Tax or VAT, having to calculate and pay the percentage corresponding to the professional activity itself in each of the invoices.

However, it must be taken into account that certain professional activities are not taxed by the Value Added Tax or VAT.The health professions (as long as they are recognized by the administration) are exempt from this tax on their invoicing.

According to article 20.3. of the law 37/1992 of the Value Added Tax, the assistance to physical persons by medical or sanitary professionals is exempt of VAT, including the figure of the psychologist in the above mentioned consideration. This means that if you are a psychologist specializing in clinical psychology or general health psychologist (either because you have taken the PIR competitive examinations, have completed the Master's Degree in General Health Psychology or have received authorization) and your professional activity is based on health activities, you will not have to charge VAT.

This also extends, according to point 20.9 of the same law, to activities related to the education of children and young people, including school and university education.including school and university education or the training of professionals. In other words, if in the same context your economic activity leads you to carry out some kind of training related to the field of health, this is also exempt from VAT.

However, the fact that these activities are exempt from VAT does not imply that we should not be taxed on the rest, being necessary to take into account that if we carry out another type of activity we must include VAT in the invoice. In any case, even if we are exempt, we must indicate both the percentage and the total amount withheld (in this case, 0).

The case of the IRPF: are there always withholdings?

The other major tax to be taken into account when invoicing is the Personal Income Tax.. As in the case of VAT, in this tax we can also find exemptions. And it is that any invoice that has as receiver an individual not self-employed will not require the IRPF withholding, so that if the invoice is made to a private patient we will not have to subtract it from our invoice.

In the case that our services are offered to a company, institution or self-employed, the invoice will be recorded by the IRPF, being necessary to indicate the percentage withheld and the amount. In general 15% is usually applied, although during the first three years it is possible that the withholding is only 7%.