The aid for the digitization of SMEs and the self-employed that the Government promised can be requested from today. Depending on the size of the company, the Administration will grant aid of up to 12,000 euros to finance aspects as diverse as internet connection, creation of an electronic commerce, the management of social networks, the implementation of tools that help to optimize the business, such as data analytics or electronic invoicing, and contracting cybersecurity services.
The self-employed and companies with up to three employees will receive up to 2,000 euros of aid, those with between three and nine workers, up to 6,000 euros, and those that employ 10 to 50 people, up to 12,000 euros, according to the order that regulates this subsidy program that has been published today in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
The money from these grants will not be delivered directly to interested companies and freelancers, but rather through a “digital voucher” with which the beneficiaries will be able to acquire the goods and services they need to implement the digitization of their businesses from official providers designated by the Administration and baptized as “digitizing agents”.
The Government indicates that companies and freelancers interested in obtaining this “digital bonus” have three months to request it from the date the order is published in the BOE, therefore can be ordered from today until the end of March. For this, entrepreneurs and independent professionals will have to contact the Acelera Pyme website and access the procedure form, which was not yet available at the time of writing this news. In the aforementioned platform there are also guides to help applicants in the process.
For the Government to grant this aid, both SMEs and the self-employed have to comply with a series of common requirements in this type of call, such as being considered a micro, small or medium-sized company or being up to date with tax obligations, and also one concrete for the subsidy at hand: obtain an assessment of the level of “digital maturity” of the company or professional, which is achieved by performing a self-diagnostic test, also available on the Acelera Pyme website and which will determine the amount that the beneficiary will receive.
Digitizing Agents
Regarding the contracting of digitization products and services, the beneficiaries of the aid They will not be able to acquire them from any provider, but rather the so-called “digitizing agents”, companies adhered to the program that provide digital services selected by the Administration.
The Ministry of Economy Explain that Any company interested in becoming a “digitizer agent” can enroll in the program through the electronic headquarters of Red.es. To be accepted as providers of the services that comprise this grant they will have to demonstrate that they have worked on similar projects in recent years.
Thus, the Administration will require that companies that apply to be “digitizing agents” have billed at least 100,000 euros in the previous two years, or 50,000 euros in the last year, developing projects similar to the services they intend to offer. The self-employed may also become official providers of this aid, and in their case they will have to have invoiced 70,000 euros in the last two years, or 35,000 euros in the last year. In both cases, the accredited billing must correspond to the Spanish market.
The program counts with a budget of 3,067 million euros for the period 2021-2023 and is part of the Pymes Digitization Plan 2021-2025.
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