Distinguish employees in salaried employment and self‑employed freelancers
The government wants sham self-employment prevent. An employee in salaried employment pays contributions for social security, for example WW, ZW and pension accrual. A zzp’er is only responsible for themselves. When a larger group of workers does not participate in the social security system, it can become more difficult for the government to support vulnerable workers.
Unfair competition also arises for employers who do have permanent employees on their payroll.
The DBA Act (Deregulation of the Assessment of Employment Relationships
Until 2016 self-employed persons (zzp’ers) could make use of a Statement of Employment Relationship (VAR). As a replacement, in that year the Deregulation of Assessment of Employment Relationships (DBA) Act was introduced. There is a case of false self-employment when a person works as a self-employed person but is treated as an employee. This occurs, for example, when a self-employed person works for only one client, does not bear entrepreneurial risks, or does not independently make choices when carrying out his or her work. Before the law
are both the employer and the self-employed person ultimately responsible for the tax consequences of their employment relationship. In practice the law turned out not to be a well-functioning alternative to the VAR. At the moment the Tax Authorities supervision , but temporarily no fines are imposed or payroll taxes are collected, unless there is intentional abuse.
1 januari 2025
Despite the fall of the cabinet, the Tax Administration has announced that from 1 januari 2025 it will more strictly enforce rules on sham self-employment. This means that when you as a client enter into an assignment with a self-employed person (zzp’er) for the duration of one year, you already need to take this law into account.
Moreover, monitoring false self-employment in practice also proves to be a difficult task for the Tax Administration. From investigation of the Court of Audit the Tax and Customs Administration also hired self-employed contractors for certain work while that was actually not allowed, states the Court of Audit. “The Tax and Customs Administration has namelyas an employeralso has difficulty applying the DBA Act correctly. For example, the Ministry of Finance hires workers through an intermediary, some of whom, on the basis of an internal assessment framework, can in principle be classified as sham self-employed.”
What should you pay attention to?
The Tax and Customs Administration ultimately wants to create a workable relationship between the client and the self‑employed person (zzp’er). These are the main criteria that need to be taken into account:
· Is there a relationship of authority?
· Is the work a core task within the organization (embedding)?
· Is there a case of independent entrepreneurship within the employment relationship?
The concept embedding is now being added to the law. This concerns work that others employed under an employment contract also perform: participating in shifts and being present at clients' premises. The above criteria will be further elaborated in consultation with social partners and stakeholders.
Although the cabinet wants to create an equal(er) playing field between self-employed people and employees, it is important that the new rules are not too rigid, so that freelancers are not disadvantaged.
Want to know more, questions?
Circle8 closely follows the news regarding the WDBA and shares any developments and noteworthy information directly via our media channels. Should you in the meantime have (specific) questions about the WDBA, then get in touch with Arno Pronk .
