Urgent measures for the protection of employment and social security in light of the damage caused by the DANA in Valencia

On 5 November 2024, the Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree-Law that implements the aid for those affected by the DANA.
This is a plan for immediate response, reconstruction and relaunching of the Valencian Community, among others, the following measures have been adopted:

FISCAL MEASURES

1. Companies affected by the DANA will receive aid of between €10,000 – €150,000, depending on their volume of operations. The self-employed will receive a payment of €5,000. The granting of this aid is subject to the condition that the beneficiaries of this aid continue to be registered in the census of entrepreneurs, professionals and withholders on 30 June 2025. This aid will be exempt from personal income tax and corporation tax.
2. All aid for personal damages received by those affected by the DANA is declared exempt from personal income tax.
3. People already receiving the Minimum Vital Income or non-contributory pensions in the areas declared seriously affected by the hurricane will receive an additional extraordinary supplement of 15% for the next 3 months, with the possibility of extending this measure, depending on how the situation progresses.
4. The second instalment of the IRPF payment is suspended for taxpayers in the areas affected by the DANA who had pending payment of this second payment. The collection that was scheduled for 5 November is suspended and postponed for 3 months, which will be made effective on 5 February 2025.
5. An exemption is granted from the Property Tax (IBI) instalments corresponding to the financial year 2024 located in the municipalities affected by the DANA, when it is accredited that both the people and the property located therein have had to be totally or partially relocated to other dwellings or premises. A reduction is granted in the Tax on Economic Activities (IAE) corresponding to the financial year 2024 that affect the properties damaged by the DANA, as long as they have had to be relocated or damage has been caused that forces the temporary closure of the activity.
6. An exemption is granted from ID card issuing fees for persons domiciled in the municipalities affected by the hurricane. An exemption is granted in relation to traffic fees for processing the cancellation of damaged vehicles in the issuing of duplicate circulation or driving licences destroyed or lost for these reasons, as long as the owner of the vehicle can prove that he/she had compulsory civil liability insurance for the vehicle at the time the damage occurred.
7. With the aim of mitigating the impact on the agricultural sector, a reduction in the net yield indexes is established for the year 2024 of the objective assessment method (taxation by modules) of the IRPF and the special simplified VAT system, in relation to the farms and agricultural activities carried out in the area affected by the DANA.
8. Relaxation of tax deadlines, so that those tax returns, settlements, summonses, pleadings and other formalities that expired in November or December will be extended until 30 January 2025. This will not apply to taxpayers whose volume of operations in 2023 exceeded €6,010,121.04, nor to the recapitulative declaration of intra-Community operations (form 349), nor to Intrastat.
9. Deferrals and instalments are also provided with no late payment interest during the first six months. Likewise, the time that this measure is in force in AEAT procedures and in economic-administrative claims will be excluded from the calculation of the procedures.

SOCIAL SECURITY MEASURES

10. Self-employed persons whose businesses have been directly affected by the DANA who have to suspend their activity will be able to access the benefit for cessation of activity even if they do not comply with the minimum contribution period (usually 12 months), and without this time being counted towards future benefits (what is known as the ‘zero counter’).
11. For companies that benefit from the ERTE and self-employed workers directly affected by the DANA, a ‘zero cost’ in social security contributions is established to mitigate the lack of income, thus favouring the maintenance of employment and a rapid reactivation of productive activity, at least until February 2025. This period will be considered fully contributed for the purposes of future benefits.
12. Deferrals are also approved between the months of October 2024 and January 2025, in the case of companies, and between the months of November 2024 and February 2025 in the case of self-employed workers, and moratoria with special conditions on the payment of Social Security obligations for companies in areas not directly affected, which have suffered the impact of the DANA, provided that they are up-to-date with their Social Security obligations and have no other deferral in force. The deferral will be incompatible with the moratorium. For companies that are able to continue their activity, the option of requesting deferrals at a reduced interest rate of 0.5% for the next four months, or one-year moratoria with zero interest on the payment of social security contributions, is available.
13. The processes of temporary incapacity produced in the area corresponding to the affected localities, from 29 October to 30 November of the same year, and initiated as a consequence of the DANA, will be considered, exceptionally, as a situation assimilated to an accident at work, exclusively for the purposes of the economic benefit of temporary incapacity of the Social Security system. Any self-employed or salaried worker who, on the date of the causal event, is registered in any of the Social Security schemes, may be entitled to this exceptional protection. The pensions for permanent incapacity, death and survival, as well as the financial benefit for partial permanent incapacity, whose causal event is a consequence of the DANA, occurring in the affected localities, shall be considered, exceptionally, as a situation assimilated to an accident at work for the sole purpose of calculating their financial amount. This exceptional protection may be granted to self-employed workers or workers employed by others who, on the date of the causal event, are in a situation of being registered or assimilated to that of being registered in any of the Social Security regimes.