False self-employment

False self-employment is the situation in which someone works formally as a self-employed contractor while the actual relationship meets the characteristics of an employment contract. Classification follows from the facts, not from what the parties have put on paper.

Legal basis

Article 7:610 of the Dutch Civil Code defines the employment contract by three elements: work, pay and a relationship of authority. In X v Municipality of Amsterdam of 6 November 2020 the Supreme Court held that one first establishes the rights and obligations the parties agreed, and only then whether that agreement meets the statutory definition; the parties’ intention plays no part at the second stage. In the Deliveroo judgment of 24 March 2023 the Supreme Court set out nine viewpoints, including the nature of the work, embedding in the organisation, freedom to send a substitute and whether the person behaves as an entrepreneur. The Tax Administration resumed full enforcement of payroll taxes on 1 January 2025. The clarification part of the VBAR bill was withdrawn in March 2026; the presumption of employment at a low hourly rate remained in the legislative process and the government is preparing a Self-Employment Act.

How it works in practice

The assessment is a weighing exercise, not a checklist. If the contractor works in the rota alongside employed staff, uses the client’s equipment, bears no entrepreneurial risk and has hardly any other clients, that points strongly towards employment. Model agreements help only where the parties actually behave in accordance with them.

Where it goes wrong

Clients rely on the wording of the contract and on a Chamber of Commerce registration; neither says much. The consequences are broad: additional payroll tax assessments with penalties, pension entitlements, and a worker invoking dismissal protection retrospectively.