This is reflected in the data collected by the Ministry of Culture and Sport from the statistical exploitation of the files of affiliation of workers to the Social Security system, provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy and of benefits for cessation of activity of the Freelancers facilitated by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Immigration.
To date, 35.3% of the 237,190 self-employed persons who, linked to the culture and sports sector, have requested this type of benefits that the Government has made available to them.
The Ministry of Culture and Sports has prepared published guides on its website and social networks to report on all the measures approved so far by the Government that affect these sectors and how to access them.
The cultural sector employs in annual average terms 710,000 people (data from the 2019 Active Population Survey) in economic activities or in cultural occupations – 3.6% of total employment in Spain in the annual period average – being 68.8% salaried .
Moratorium on payments, improvement of the self-employed system and reduction of VAT on electronic books
On the other hand, it is highlighted that the Council of Ministers held last Tuesday, April 21 approved Royal Decree Law 15/2020, on complementary urgent measures to support the economy and employment. In the tax measures section, the SME and self-employed system is made more flexible, so that they are taxed on their real income, allowing them to renounce the objective estimation method of the Individual Income Tax, and the quarterly quota of the regime Simplified Value Added Tax (VAT).
The nearly two hundred thousand self-employed workers who carry out economic activities related to culture and intellectual property may benefit from this measure, and most of them are subject to the objective estimation system or module taxation. With this system, they will be able to more accurately reflect the reduction in income produced in their economic activity as a consequence of COVID-19, and pay taxes accordingly.
A moratorium on the payment of taxes has also been approved, offering the possibility of "making the payment of tax debts contingent on obtaining financing" subject to the public guarantee plan, of up to 100,000 million, deployed by the Government in response to the crisis. Thus, the companies that request the aforementioned credits will not start the executive period for certain tax debts and may delay the payment of taxes until they obtain the loans with the public guarantee of the ICO.
Finally, the VAT on electronic books, magazines and newspapers has been reduced from 21 to 4%, to align it with that applicable to paper, which is 4%. The VAT reduction for electronic publishing is a measure of support for publishers and the media. It is expected to have a positive stimulating effect on the business fabric linked to books and the press, and on family consumption of both electronic books and the press.
The results of the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain 2018-2019, carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, indicated a notable position of reading books in digital format. Specifically, the annual readership rates stood at 65.8%; reading in paper format, in 61.9%, and reading in digital format, in 20.2%.
The Ministry of Culture and Sports is working with the Ministry of Finance on measures that take into account the specificities of the cultural sectors with the same objective with which the crisis of COVID-19 has been addressed: the protection coverage of the most vulnerable to leave no one behind.