The Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA) of Castilla y León publicly denounces the administrative burden they face and which they say is “unbearable.” According to the latest data from the organization provided to the ICAL Agency, the 182,761 self-employed workers in the region dedicate an average of 200 hours annually exclusively to managing administrative, fiscal and labor procedures.
What at first glance seems like wasted time has a devastating economic impact on the productive fabric of the Community. When translating those hours into economic value, the data is compelling:
- Cost per self-employed person: 3,000 euros per year (calculated on an average cost of €15/hour).
- Regional impact: More than 548 million euros and 36.5 million hours lost.
- National impact: The problem escalates in Spain to 10,000 million euros and 650 million hours dedicated to paperwork.
In a group where the average working day already reaches 47 hours per week, having to dedicate four additional hours to administration is a “direct blow to rest and family conciliation.”
The ATA Barometer for the end of 2025 reveals a worrying trend: 92% of self-employed workers say that bureaucratic obstacles have increased in the last year. This situation worsens “exponentially” for those who have workers under their care, due to the growing complexity of labor regulations.
Given this scenario, ATA has indicated three priority measures for future budgets and policies, highlighting tax simplification: the reduction of declarations (going from four annual tax declarations to two, or even just one); the elimination of obstacles (simplification of communication channels with Social Security and the Treasury) and real digitalization (that technology serves to save time, not to add new processes).
“It is unacceptable that a self-employed person from Castile-Leonese has to dedicate practically one month of his work a year just to manage procedures with the different administrations. We are talking about 200 hours per year that cost approximately 3,000 euros per business. 200 hours that we do not spend on producing, but rather on managing procedures,” says the president of ATA Castilla y León, Leticia Mingueza.
