Did you know that all interns are required to pay contributions from 2024, regardless of whether they do paid internships or not?
From January 1, 2024, all people who are doing internships are required to pay Social Security contributions as stated in Royal Decree – Law 8/2023, of December 27. Here is a concise summary of the key aspects provided by Elena Trastoy, Lawyer and Head of the Legal Department at GM Integra RRHH, with the aim of providing clarity and answering any questions or concerns. This article has also been published in Emprendedores Magazine.
From 1/1/2024, students who are doing internships as interns, even if they are not paid, must be registered and pay Social Security contributions (as those similar to registration):
- University students who do internships, both those aimed at obtaining official bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as those aimed at obtaining a university-specific degree, continuing education master’s degree, specialization diploma or expert diploma.
- Students who do vocational training, provided that it is not provided under the intensive vocational training regime.
Likewise, they do not have to pay contributions to the MEI and a 95% reduction will be applied to the contributions for common contingencies, so the State will be responsible for covering practically all the amounts to be contributed to Social Security.
The protective action will be that of the corresponding regime, excluding unemployment protection, FOGASA and FP.
For unpaid internships, protection for IT due to common contingencies is also excluded and the contribution obligations correspond to the company or entity where they are carried out, unless otherwise agreed in the cooperation agreement.
For paid training internships, the contribution obligations fall on the entity that finances the training program.
The responsible entity must communicate the effective days of internships assuming the company quota determined by the PGE Law for each day of registration.