Quotables

Pekka Gaiser is a designer and developer and the founder of Autónomotools. An autónomo in Spain since 2018, he has done his own taxes and paperwork from the start, and has become a fixture in several autónomo forums, giving advice and helping people navigate the sometimes complex system.

Pekka Gaiser is a designer and developer, and the founder of Autónomotools. He has been an autónomo in Spain since 2018, was self-employed for a decade before that in Germany, and grew up in the middle of a family startup. When he started in Spain, he decided to do his own taxes and all of the paperwork himself, and learned the system the hard way. He became a fixture in several autónomo and resident self-help forums, answering questions and helping others understand the rules. He lives on an off-grid finca in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands.

Pekka Gaiser is a designer and developer, and the founder of Autónomotools. He has been an autónomo in Spain since 2018, was self-employed for a decade before that in Germany, and grew up in the middle of a family startup, which left him with a firm belief: understanding the fundamentals of pricing, taxation and the rules that govern your work is a superpower, even if you leave the day-to-day to an accountant, gestor or lawyer.

When he started in Spain, he set out to do his own taxes and all of the paperwork himself, despite a steep learning curve and plenty of stress. He got good at it, and became a fixture in several autónomo and resident self-help forums, answering questions and helping others understand the system.

Listening to many worried autónomos there, he learned that even people who use a gestor do not always get the service and the information they need. Autónomotools is his answer: calculators and tools that let every autónomo check their own numbers, with a gestor or without one. The figures are researched from the primary sources and every calculation shows its working, but none of it is professional advice, and Autónomotools is not a gestoría.

He lives in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, and builds Autónomotools alongside a full-time commitment.

Autónomotools is a set of calculators and tools that help the self-employed in Spain understand the system better and find out what they will really pay, earn, and keep.

Autónomotools is a set of calculators and tools for the self-employed in Spain. It helps autónomos work out what they will really pay in social security and income tax, what hourly rate they need to charge, what their prices leave in their pocket, and whether they are likely to owe anything to social security at the rest of the year. It is available in English, Spanish, German and Finnish, the latter two being the founder's native languages. Every calculator is free up to the minimum wage; a yearly subscription unlocks the rest. Autónomotools is built and run by Pekka Gaiser, autónomo in Lanzarote since 2018. It is not a gestoría and does not give tax advice.

Autónomotools is a set of calculators and tools for the self-employed (autónomos) in Spain. It answers the questions every autónomo has and few can answer for themselves: what will I really pay in social security this year, how much income tax will I owe, what hourly rate do I need to charge to earn what I want, what do my prices actually leave in my pocket, and will the regularización bring a bill or a refund.

Six calculators are online: the hourly rate, a pricing simulator for products, services and subscriptions, social security, income tax, the regularización, and the total cost of being autónomo. Two reference tables sit beside them: the contribution brackets (tramos) for every year since the 2023 reform, and the social security discounts, from the tarifa plana down. More than twenty further tools are in the works.

The figures come from the primary sources: the BOE, the AEAT's Manual práctico de Renta, the Seguridad Social's own tables and each comunidad autónoma's published tax scale. Every calculation can show its own working, step by step, and the site links to the rule behind each number.

Autónomotools is available in English, Spanish, German and Finnish, and keeps the Spanish terms (tramo, cuota, base de cotización) so that its users learn the system as it is. Every calculator is free up to the minimum wage, with no account and no card. A yearly membership unlocks every calculation above that, saved calculations and downloads.

The site is built and run by Pekka Gaiser, a designer and developer who has been an autónomo in Spain since 2018 and has done his own taxes and paperwork from the start. Autónomotools is not a gestoría and does not give tax advice: it is meant to help autónomos understand their own numbers, with a gestor or without one.