On paper the Digital kit It doesn’t seem a bad idea. The government’s proposal, managed by Red.esgrants a series of subsidies to facilitate the “digital transformation” of SMEs and freelancers.
Or what is the same: that small businesses and people “in self -employment” can for example have their website, their online store and even access the subsidy of a macbook air m4 that seems to leave “free”.
Except that it does not go free. Not much less.
Subsidies for digital transformation
The program, promoted by Red.es and the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, aims to “digitize” SMEs and adapt them to new times.
Source: Red.es
Financing comes from the Next Generation EU program of the European Union, and to start it up they were established different segments of beneficiaries that depended on the size of the SMEs or whether you were autonomous.
The calls for almost all segments have been ending over the last months, but there is one that remains active: that of segment III, dedicated to SMEs from zero to three employees and also autonomous.
The maximum amount of the subsidy for this segment is 3,000 euros, and is divided into two items. The first, with a subsidy of up to 2,000 euros can be used to commission the development of a web page (“basic internet presence”) or an online store (“Marketplace”).
The second, which is becoming a claim on social networks, is a subsidy of up to 1,000 euros for the acquisition of a “safe job”which normally translates into a PC or portable. An important detail here: you can not ask for only the computer for the computer, and this can only be requested as a complement to the subsidy for the website or online store mentioned above.
To access the program and get those “digital bonds” of up to 3,000 euros the process, explained in a PDFIt is theoretically simple. Just access the web accelerapyme.escomplete a “self -diagnosis test” and request help Digital kit through the form of the Red.es electronic headquarters.
From there we will have to get in touch with a “digitizer agent”which will be the intermediary through which this “digital transformation” of our business is carried out.
It is they who provide us with services (or manage that a third party provide them) and that they also take care of the acquisition of the famous portable of 1,000 euros. It is possible to become one of these digitalizing agents through the aforementioned Electronic Headquarters of Red.es, and In another guide in PDF It explains how to log in.
A digitizer agent tells us the reality of the digital kit program
As we say, on paper everything seems correct, but in practice the digital kit program has become a source of controversy that affects both parties, both those who have asked for those subsidies and to those who have managed them.
To know from within what is happening we have talked to Pablo F. Iglesiasfounder of the consultant Cyberbainers that among other things achieved homologation for the digital kit. He has suffered the “small print” of this project as well as a service provider as a couple of a person who requested them.
After this time offering their services, he tells us how his feeling is that there were “too many used who have seen in the program a quick business opportunity.” It is a message that others have shared such as Jaime Gómez-Obregón, which explained in x How a microenterprise “sold” hundreds of digital kit projects by subcontracting websites to freelancers in South America, which ended up promoting “Business models of using and throwing”.
Iglesias also indicated how there have been large companies that They have taken advantage of the program to capture new customers as part of your service offer. In both cases the impact has been mostly negative.
There are many the Complaints in social networks that They speak of Scams Related and how it has been seen that frequently the quality of the web pages or online stores created was very low, they were often “clones” of other web pages with minimal modifications that did not justify the 2,000 euros of the subsidy. For churches there is another additional problem:
“Although they grant, for example, 6,000 euros to your company, the categories are limited to maximum expenses. Insufficient expenses to provide a service of twelve months, which encourages, by the structure of the subsidy itself, that the quality of the service is very but very low … or an economic agreement is reached outside the digital kit contract.”
Iglesias himself explained that with 2,000 euros it is practically impossible for someone to “make you a professional website, give you basic services of backups, maintenance and monthly SEO work for 12 months.”
Even so, he emphasizes, this program has caused the foam “alleged marketing agencies that They are dedicated to riding clonic WordPress With free templates in an afternoon, financing with the digital kit. “Although these pages do not position well in front of the competition, in the eyes of the program they have fulfilled the work,” and as the type client to which they van do not understand anything in the digital world, because it cooks. “
Free laptop myth
In recent days we have started to see frequently on social networks like Tiktok Publications of accounts that They talked of The easy What was it get a macbook air m4 “free” subsidized by digital kit.
But all these messages are misleading advertising, since although the digital kit program subsidizes these teams, who want to take advantage of this option will have to be very attentive to the small print.
To start, because That subsidy does not cover VATand here Iglesias points to how “the state always wins.” To get the laptop we have to ask both the subsidy of 1,000 euros for the “safe job” and the 2,000 euros for the creation of a website or, as many of those ads sell, the start -up of a digital billing system for the companies that for example makes use of verifactu.
And be careful, because there are agencies that promote the digital kit without VAT when they are located in the Canary Islands, but in reality that tax you will have to self -chly, As explained in Indosmedia.
So we are taking advantage of a 3,000 euros subsidy of which we will have to pay 21% of the VAT. That is, those who ask for the subsidy pay just a VAT of 420+210 = 630 euros.
But it is also that if we end up “buying” the MacBook, what we will actually do will be to acquire it in leasing regime. It is the digitizer agent who manages that 12 -month leasing, and after that period we will have to decide if we want to stay it or not. If the answer is affirmative, We will have to pay 15% of its value as a cost of assignmentplus the corresponding VAT, that is, 181.50 euros.
We can make the accounts with the famous Macbook Air M4 “Free”, which on the Apple website now costs 1,199 euros in its basic 13 -inch version, 16 GB of unified memory and 256 GB of SSD. As we can see, the price exceeds the maximum of the subsidy, but there is no problem with that: it is enough that the digital kit percector pays the difference. Let’s see:
MacBook Air 13 “M4: 1,199 euros
- The user pays 199 euros of the difference with the maximum limit of the subsidy granted with the digital kit, which is 1,000 euros.
- The user pays VAT of the total subsidy, which in total is 630 euros.
- If after twelve months you want to keep the laptop, you must pay 15% of the assignment plus VAT, others 181.50 euros.
The laptop has not left for free, of course. Not much less. The user has paid 1,010.50 euros To be able to keep it twelve months later.
Here is an additional component that can soften the blow a bit. In SMEs and free that expense in the laptop you do it (theoretically) for your business and your company, which allows you to deduce the VAT that you will have to pay the State to offer your products or services.
A round business (but probably not for you)
As They explain in declaringthese deductions make in the quarterly statements (model 303), but that does not mean that the Treasury will return it as is in your quarterly statement.
What you can do is Compensate it with the VAT of your incomeand if so, the total VAT may be reduced to a greater or lesser extent (and perhaps totally). Even so, you will have had to pay at least 199+181.50 euros = 380.50 euros for the laptop. That is certainly not a high price for the team, but it is not “free.” For Iglesias this is a “bestial” play of politicians:
“Thanks to this, the State has been” invoicing “millions with VAT, and the digitalizing agents pay us, on average, and hopefully, one part at six months, and the other remaining a year and something to have given the service.
That is, the one who wins yes or yes is the state. More considering that the digital kit is a subsidy paid by the Next Generation Eu funds … that do not come from the Spanish State, but from Europe. Therefore, in the face of politicians it has been a bestial success: they artificially increase GDP, paying late and badly to service suppliers, and above with money that is not yours. “
This entrepreneur told us how in addition to digitizing agent he has been a victim of such possible deceptions. As it counts in detail In his bloghis partner, who is autonomous and has his own business, requested the digital kit last year.
He did it with a company that used his data to access the government platform, process the subsidy and even self -confirming the acceptance of the 2,000 euros bonus.
The service never came to offer, but that digitizing agent can even charge the subsidy We must pay VAT, which his partner paid. After denouncing it to accelerapyme, all they have achieved is that they close the contract and cannot access the option to acquire the hardware if I had wanted it.
There are undoubtedly success cases in which the digital kit It may have helped What SMEs and self -employed to plant the seed to have a presence on the Internet. The Chamber of Commerce of Spain and Red.es They mention some of them in their YouTube channels. In Xataka we have contacted those responsible for Red.es to clarify the doubts, and we will update this text if we receive new data.
However, you have to be very careful with this type of programs and try to inform yourself about who will provide it to us, what guarantees it offers and what will be the real cost of that subsidy, which as we say, probably does not get free.
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