New zzp policy matters, but daily instructions and pricing already decide what a small business must defend.
A specialist arrives at a small company on Tuesday morning. She runs her own business, sends a monthly invoice and signed a contractor agreement last year. Yet she joins the team meeting, works through the client’s systems and waits for a manager to set the week’s priorities.
What began as an independent project has settled into an ordinary role. The founder still sees the same reliable professional. The tax and legal position may have changed.
That tension matters more than the cabinet’s promise of a new Zelfstandigenwet. The 2026 Troonrede presents the future law as a way to protect genuine entrepreneurship while tackling false self-employment. The proposal deserves attention, but current rules still govern today’s assignment.
The contract meets the working week
Normal Belastingdienst enforcement resumed on 1 January 2025. When an engagement is treated as false self-employment, payroll-tax corrections and additional assessments may follow. Assessments can generally reach back to 1 January 2025. A period of up to five years may apply where bad faith is involved or an earlier instruction was ignored.
Since 1 January 2026, the Belastingdienst can also impose vergrijpboetes in this area. It will not impose verzuimboetes during 2026. The distinction matters, but the practical point is simpler: tax exposure can arise after work has been completed, invoiced and paid.
A contract remains useful. It records the intended relationship, the assignment, the rate and the commercial terms. It must also continue to describe the work as it is actually done.
In the Deliveroo ruling, the Supreme Court required an assessment of the relationship as a whole. Control over work and hours, organisational integration, replacement, remuneration, commercial risk and entrepreneurial conduct can all matter. A high rate, several clients, a KvK registration or a VAT invoice does not settle the question on its own.
The real test appears when someone watches the work rather than reads the label.
The assignment can drift
Classification risk often begins with convenience. A project lasts longer than expected. The contractor joins a recurring rota. A manager starts approving leave because continuity matters.
Substitution remains possible on paper, but nobody would accept an unfamiliar replacement. The contractor gradually depends on one buyer, while the client starts treating that person as part of normal capacity.
Each change can look harmless on its own. Together, they may tell a different story from the agreement signed nine months earlier.
The Belastingdienst expects clients and contractors to reassess their relationship during an assignment. The useful control is not another form at onboarding. It is a deliberate pause when the work changes.
Has the scope expanded? Who now sets the hours? Can the contractor still decide how the result is delivered? Does the person carry commercial risk, or mainly supply time under supervision?
The founder in that Tuesday meeting does not need a theatrical compliance exercise. The company needs an honest account of what changed and when. Emails, project plans, invoices and system access can help reconstruct that account. So can the manager who directed the work.
Lower rates bring sharper proof pressure
From 31 December 2026, a self-employed worker earning less than €38 per hour can invoke a presumption that an employment contract exists. The client must then show that the relationship is not employment. The €38 amount applies from 1 January 2026.
For these engagements, the rate on an invoice is only the starting point. A company should be able to explain what the rate covered, how working time was measured and which costs sat with the contractor. Unpaid preparation or administration may also affect the effective hourly amount.
One precise question is worth asking: if the rate were challenged six months later, could the company reconcile the agreement, hours, invoices and actual delivery without rebuilding the story from memory?
Existing approved model agreements may still be used until 31 December 2029 if they were valid on 6 September 2024. Their value depends on the parties working according to their terms. The Belastingdienst no longer assesses new model agreements or extends existing ones.
Paper can support the facts. It cannot replace them.
Compliance meets a tighter labour market
This would be easier if every doubtful contractor arrangement could be replaced immediately. The market is less accommodating.
CBS counted almost 1.5 million people whose main job was self-employment in the second quarter of 2026. The number of zzp workers had fallen for six consecutive quarters and stood 131,000 below the fourth quarter of 2024.
For businesses buying specialist capacity, that direction matters. A founder who changes one contractor relationship may face a genuine staffing gap. Payroll, agency work and flexible employment each bring their own costs and duties.
The wider rules for flexible work are becoming more structured as well. The Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers will bring most changes into force on 1 January 2028. The law replaces zero-hours contracts with bandwidth contracts. Their maximum hours may be no more than 30 percent above the minimum. Rules requiring at least equivalent employment conditions for agency workers start on 31 December 2026.
Compliance cannot be separated from pricing, recruitment and delivery promises.
Back in the Tuesday meeting, the answer may still be a genuine independent assignment. It may instead be a narrower project, a different management approach or an employment route. The important move is to decide before habit decides for the company.
The proposed Zelfstandigenwet deserves attention, but it should not encourage passive waiting. Its final tests, transition rules and commencement date still have to follow. Meanwhile, the strongest evidence remains close to the work itself: who decides, who carries risk, how the rate is built and whether the agreement still describes an ordinary week.
That is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the discipline of making the company’s chosen labour model true.
Review how your contractor arrangements work in practice before habit creates a position the agreement can no longer support.
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Paolo Maria Pavan. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Paolo Maria Pavan before publication.
References
- Troonrede: Kabinet zet in op innovatie, minder regels en nieuwe zzp-wet
- Rijksoverheid - Official policy signal: new Zelfstandigenwet
- Belastingdienst - Current enforcement and payroll exposure
- Belastingdienst - Evidence follows the practical relationship, not the template
- Rechtspraak - Legal test for employment status
- Rijksoverheid - Lower-paid worker presumption and reversal of proof pressure
- Belastingdienst - Practical assessment tools and the need for periodic review
- CBS - Labour-market shift behind the compliance decision
