The Deregulation of Assessment of Employment Relationships Act (DBA) was once intended was to create clarity about the difference between employment and self-employment, currently mainly causes unrest among clients and self-employed professionals.
In a time when flexibility is essential and self-employed freelancers play a crucial role in sectors such as IT, finance, HR and engineering, the impact of this law is growing. That's why in this blog we briefly and to the point explain what the Wet DBA exactly entails, why it is back in the spotlight in 2025, and what you as a client must do to remain compliant.
What is the DBA Act again?
The DBA Act determines whether someone should be regarded as self-employed or as an employee. The goal: to prevent false self-employment, where freelancers in fact work as employees but without the associated social security contributions or employment protections.
Important criteria include:
Does someone work under the direction and supervision of the client (authority or work-related direction)?
Is there embedding (do permanent employees perform the same tasks and does the work form part of the organization's core activity)?
Does the self-employed person assume the entrepreneurial risk?
May he/she decide for himself/herself where and when the work is done?
Since 1 januari 2025 the Tax Authorities check, among other things, these points, with the risks: additional tax assessments, fines (vanaf 2026) and reputational damage for clients. With the caveat that the client is the one who has the contract (read model agreement) with the self-employed contractor. In the event of a possible additional assessment, reputational damage of course applies to the entire hiring chain!
What changes in 2025?
What makes the situation urgent is that the Tax Authority is now actively enforcing. The ‘pause mode’ of the past few years has been lifted. The chance that your organization will receive a company visit or even a books audit is real.
What this means for clients:
You must now really be able to demonstrate that there is no case of sham self-employment with regard to the freelancers (zzp’ers) you hire.
You are responsible for the correct contract form, and this also applies if you collaborate through an intermediary or placement agency.
Cases of doubt can lead to additional assessments.Whereby the Tax Authority can go back to 1 januari 2025, but in the worst case can also hold the self-employed person liable, but then can claim entrepreneurial tax benefits enjoyed up to 5 jaar back from the alleged self-employed person.
Common risks for clients
At Circle8 we see that risks often arise from unclear agreements or unconscious assumptions. Pay attention to these pitfalls:
Enforcing rosters and working hours
Divide or approve the work yourself (more like determining the HOW)
Using internal resources as if the freelancer is an employee
Long-term commitment without review of the collaboration
Treat the freelancer as if they were a colleague (Christmas gift, company outings, etc.)
The DBA Act calls for clarity and action
The renewed enforcement means you need to look differently at the way you hire self-employed contractors. Doing nothing is not an option. Those who do nothing run risks — legal, fiscal and strategic. But those who deliberately choose transparency, clear agreements and the right partners remain agile and successful.
Do you want to be sure that your organization is compliant when hiring self-employed contractors (zzp’ers)? Read our detailed explanation and practical tips on our dedicated Wet DBA page: circle8.nl/wet-dba
