If you are one of the more than half a million foreign autónomos working in Spain, buying a new car or van could soon become considerably cheaper. 

From 10am on Thursday October 1, self-employed workers and businesses can apply for Spain’s latest vehicle assistance, with grants reaching €6,000 for an eligible passenger car and as much as €12,000 for certain professional light commercial vehicles. 

This is particularly relevant for British residents, too. There are 26,416 British nationals registered as autónomos in Spain, making Brits the fifth-largest foreign nationality among the country’s self-employed workers, according to a recent EWN report on Spain’s foreign autónomo boom.

Unlike the wider Plan Auto+ assistance EWN has previously covered, this new €50 million application window is specifically for autónomos and businesses, with €8 million reserved for self-employed workers.

So who can actually get the money, and how much could you receive?

How much could an autónomo get?

The amount depends on the vehicle and the applicant’s circumstances.

Under the official Plan Auto+ rules published in the BOE (Spain’s official gazette), the maximum normally available to an autónomo (a self-employed sole trader) or microbusiness is €6,000 towards an eligible M1 passenger car, rising to €7,500 for an N1 light commercial vehicle such as a van.

Some autónomos and microbusinesses whose professional activity qualifies for the Social Climate Fund, an EU fund set up to help cushion the cost of the green transition, can get more, with support reaching €7,000 for a passenger car and as much as €12,000 for a qualifying light commercial vehicle. 

That distinction matters, though, as the headline figure of €12,000 isn’t available to every autónomo buying a new car.

Can foreign residents apply?

Being British or another foreign nationality doesn’t in itself exclude someone from the scheme.

What matters is whether the applicant carries out an eligible economic activity in Spain and meets the programme’s requirements. Autónomos must be registered with the Spanish Tax Agency’s Census of Businesses, Professionals and Withholders (or the corresponding regional register), and be up to date with their tax and Social Security payments.

The vehicle itself also has to qualify, carrying the DGT’s (Spain’s traffic authority) ‘Zero Emissions’ label, with the amount ultimately received depending on factors including the vehicle’s technology, price and contribution to European vehicle production. Leasing and renting arrangements can qualify too, as long as they meet the programme’s conditions.

Why October 1 matters

Anyone thinking about applying may want to prepare before Thursday October 1. Applications open at 10am mainland Spanish time that day and are scheduled to remain open until 2pm on Thursday December 31.

But there’s an important catch. The Spanish government says eligible applications will be dealt with in the order they’re submitted until the money runs out, and of the €50 million available, €8 million is reserved for autónomos while €42 million is allocated to companies.

That makes the opening date particularly important for self-employed workers who already intend to replace a vehicle. The Spanish government’s official Plan Auto+ information explains the requirements and application process in full.

For Spain’s growing community of foreign autónomos, that means one thing. If a new car or van is already on the cards, it’s worth having your paperwork ready well before Thursday October 1, since applications are handled strictly in the order they arrive.

Ask any of Spain’s autónomos what their Social Security bill will look like in January 2027, and you’ll get a shrug. The government hasn’t sat down with self-employed groups in months, and the clock on next year’s contribution rates is running out fast. 

The contribution table for 2027 still doesn’t exist

Every autónomo (self-employed worker) in Spain pays into Social Security through one of 15 brackets, based on how much they earn. For 2026, those brackets run from around €205 to €1,606 a month, and which one applies depends on a person’s declared net income. A solo shopkeeper can pay close to €300 a month toward Social Security alone, and that’s before even considering rent, power and insurance.

For 2027, though, there’s nothing. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, run by Elma Saiz, hasn’t sat down with self-employed groups and unions to agree new figures in months, and with barely three months of 2026 left, there’s still no official table for next year. 

Why the talks stalled 

The dispute isn’t really about whether cuotas (monthly contributions) will rise, as this is probably a certainty, but it’s about how much and for whom. ATA, the country’s biggest self-employed association, led by Lorenzo Amor, has long argued increases should be capped at inflation rather than tied to a steeper income-based scale.

UATAE, a smaller self-employed association aligned with the CCOO trade union, has taken a blunter line on the current stalemate, saying negotiations ‘cannot continue to be postponed’. With neither side back at the table and no meeting scheduled, the 2027 figures are as stuck as they were months ago. 

One 2027 rise is already locked in

Not everything about next year is up in the air. A pension top-up charge called the Mecanismo de Equidad Intergeneracional (a fund set aside for future pension shortfalls) is due to rise automatically from 0.9 to 1.0 per cent, regardless of how the wider talks go. In practice that adds somewhere between around 65 cents and just over €5 a month, depending on someone’s contribution base. 

That part is fixed by law already, though. The bracket table that decides the bulk of what an autónomo actually pays each month is the part still missing and what really matters to the self-employed workers.

What’s stuck alongside the money 

The stalled talks aren’t just holding up the rates announcement. Improvements to cese de actividad (the closest thing autónomos have to unemployment benefit), along with fixes to how sick leave and parental leave currently penalise self-employed workers, are tied to the same negotiation.

So until the ministry and the associations get back round the table, none of that moves either, with plenty of autónomos left thinking that they’ll just have to wait and see about the protections they were promised alongside the last reform. 

Thousands of Brits are waiting on the same answer

This isn’t only a Spanish problem. Foreign autónomos have been propping up Spain’s self-employed numbers for years, and Brits are a big part of that story, with more than 26,000 now registered.

Every one of them is budgeting for next year just as blindly as their Spanish neighbours. For now, all any autónomo in Spain can do is keep an eye on the ministry’s next move, and budget for 2027 using the numbers already confirmed and loosely based on an increment to this year’s figures.