In light of the developments in the self-employment field, we will keep you posted regularly through our Update on Self-Employment. In this Update on Self-Employment we will fill you in on developments, the impact on your organisation, and the action you should take.
On 1 January 2025, the Dutch Tax Administration started enforcing the law on false self-employment, marking the end of the enforcement suspension. False self-employment exists where work is performed under an agreement for services, which is actually an employment agreement. The Tax Administration published the Employment Relations Enforcement Plan on 18 December 2024. We will discuss the main points below.
Correction obligations, retrospective levies and fining policy
In order to prevent unrest among clients and contractors, the enforcement gets a ‘soft landing’. Since 1 January 2025 correction obligations and retrospective levies may be imposed again, but only with retroactive effect until 1 January 2025, because of the former enforcement suspension. This is a ‘transitional model’: only in 2030 will the Tax Administration be able to impose retrospective levies up to five years back.
Previously, it was already announced in a letter to the Lower House of Parliament that no punitive fines (up to 50% of the tax due) would be imposed in 2025 on clients who can demonstrably show that they are working on the correct qualification of the employment relationship. The Enforcement Plan now states that in 2025, no punitive fines or default fines (10% of the tax due, capped at €5,514) will be imposed for qualification of employment relations.
Company visits and tax audits
In 2025, an audit by the Tax Administration will usually start with a company visit. During such a visit the Tax Administration will discuss the qualification of employment relations with the client. If there are signals that indicate false self-employment, the Tax Administration may choose to issue a warning to the client first rather than immediately perform a tax audit. This gives the client one more chance to shape the employment relationship properly, before possibly facing a correction obligation or a retrospective wage tax assessment.
The warning is not an official instrument, unlike the ‘instruction’ that was used until 2025. The Tax Administration may choose to perform a tax audit at once, for example if there are big risks or an unwilling client.
Supporting measures: communication, prior consultations and model agreements
Furthermore, there are ‘supporting measures’ to help parties find the correct qualification of the employment relationship, including extensive education and real-world examples on the website hetjuistecontract.nl.
Besides, it is possible to request prior consultations with the Tax Administration, with the option of obtaining a review of a specific employment relationship. The Tax Administration has prepared a form and checklist for this purpose. The certainty of prior consultations is only conditional; if the actual performance does not correspond with the situation described, the judgment in retrospect may still be that there is false self-employment.
Finally, the use of the model agreements will be ceased. No new applications or extensions can be submitted anymore, and existing model agreements will be phased out. To soften the blow, it has been decided that model agreements already approved will be respected until the end of 2029. Just as the prior consultations, the model agreements only offer certainty as long as the actual work is done in accordance with the description. If a model agreement is used and work is indeed done according to this model agreement, this constitutes an evidentiary presumption of the existence of an agreement for services vis-à-vis the Tax Administration.
In Conclusion
In its resumption of enforcement, the Tax Administration accommodates clients in several respects. Despite the ‘soft landing’, parties will have to work on the correct qualification of the employment relationship; after all, the lenient fining policy applies to fines only. The Tax Administration may still impose correction obligations and retrospective levies. Besides, no enforcement suspension exists (or has ever existed) from an employment-law perspective. This means that false self-employed persons may also bring claims based on employment law with retroactive effect until the time before 1 January 2025. Trade unions and pension funds may also bring such claims.
Our experts have a lot of experience in assessing employment relations and suggesting possible solutions. We often involve a tax expert too in such assessments. We would be pleased to visit you in order to prepare an assessment together. Would you like to receive more information, or are you interested? Please contact Ruud Schepers or Eylard van Fenema.
