Dutch enforcement is changing hiring, but payroll and agency work bring their own costs and duties.
The project manager is available next Monday. She knows the customers, understands the systems and can cover the work nobody else has time to absorb. Six months ago, the founder would have approved her zzp proposal before lunch. Today, the contract stays in the inbox while the founder asks whether the relationship might look too much like employment.
That hesitation is understandable. The Belastingdienst ended the enforcement moratorium for employment relationships on 1 January 2025. If an arrangement qualifies as false self-employment, payroll-tax corrections and additional assessments can follow. In 2026, vergrijpboetes may also apply where intent or gross negligence is involved. Verzuimboetes are not being imposed this year.
Yet cancelling the assignment does not cancel the work. Customers still expect delivery. Employees still need support. The founder must replace the missing capacity with overtime, recruitment, agency labour, a delayed project or a smaller promise to the customer. Each choice has a price. Some choices also exchange one compliance concern for another.
The contract is only the beginning
Dutch employment status depends on the whole working relationship. Direction, working hours, organisational integration, personal performance, payment, commercial risk and entrepreneurial conduct all matter together. A KvK registration, VAT invoice, model agreement or attractive hourly rate cannot settle the question alone.
This is where long experience in Dutch administration changes the reading. Problems rarely begin with a visibly reckless decision. They grow through ordinary habits. A three-month project continues for two years. The independent specialist joins weekly staff meetings. A manager starts approving holidays. The worker joins the same roster as employees and gradually loses the practical freedom to organise the assignment.
The Belastingdienst expects parties to reassess the relationship when the way of working changes. The agreement signed at the start may no longer describe Monday morning. The practical question is direct: are we buying an independent result, or are we directing a person who has quietly become part of the permanent organisation?
The €38 threshold adds pressure, not certainty
From 31 December 2026, a zzp professional paid below €38 per hour can invoke a statutory presumption of employment. The commissioning party must then show that no employment contract exists. The rate does not decide every case. A rate above €38 also leaves the wider relationship to be assessed.
The threshold makes rate setting part of a broader governance decision. Price, scope, independence and commercial risk need to tell a coherent story. If the rate is low, the work is continuous, the worker follows internal instructions and genuine entrepreneurial freedom is limited, the company cannot rely on the invoice heading to carry the argument.
A proposed Zelfstandigenwet may eventually provide a clearer structure. It entered consultation on 1 October 2026, with an intended start in January 2028. Its proposed tests look at invoicing, client numbers, entrepreneurial risk, independent organisation and working for one’s own account. The proposal remains at consultation stage. Today’s hiring decision must stand on today’s facts and rules.
Fewer zzp jobs do not create easy recruitment
CBS counted 99,000 fewer self-employed jobs in the second quarter of 2026 than one year earlier, while employee jobs increased by 105,000. These are jobs, not individual people. The shift still matters for a small company planning capacity, particularly where freelance work is moving towards employment in sectors such as construction, hospitality, care and welfare, and culture.
That movement does not make skilled workers suddenly easy to hire. UWV continues to see a tight labour market, with replacement demand creating vacancies even where overall job growth is limited. A business can reduce classification exposure and still be unable to recruit the person needed to serve customers. Compliance and continuity belong in the same decision.
Payroll also changes the cash rhythm. The comparison is not simply an hourly freelance invoice against a gross salary. Employment can bring holiday pay, employer charges, sickness exposure, administration, pension costs where applicable and wages during quieter months. CBS reported collective wage growth of 4.0 percent in the third quarter of 2026, rising to 5.0 percent in specialist business services. For a small firm, that pressure reaches margin quickly.
An intermediary does not remove responsibility
Agency labour may look like the convenient middle route. It can provide capacity without a direct freelance relationship or an immediate recruitment process. The Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie has reminded hirers that an agency does not remove their responsibilities for working conditions, employment conditions and checks on whether people may work in the Netherlands.
Rules for agency work are tightening too. Equal or equivalent employment-condition requirements take effect on 31 December 2026. The practical choice is not between a risky freelancer and a responsibility-free intermediary. It is between staffing models with different costs, duties and control points.
Return to that project manager waiting for an answer. The sensible response is neither automatic rejection nor cosmetic contract wording. The founder needs to compare the agreement with the real routine, price the credible alternatives and decide who owns the relationship as it develops. Recurring assignments, fixed rosters and work central to customer delivery deserve particular attention.
Genuine independent work remains possible and valuable. Dutch businesses still need specialists, temporary expertise and entrepreneurial professionals. Independence must live in the assignment, not only in the paperwork. The mature decision is to preserve useful flexibility where it is real, place structural work where it can be managed responsibly, and ensure that today’s staffing shortcut does not become tomorrow’s payroll surprise or empty roster.
If your staffing model is changing, assess the real working relationship and price the credible alternatives before deciding.
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Linda Pavan Geraedts. 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 Linda Pavan Geraedts before publication.
References
- Handhaving schijnzelfstandigheid leidt tot minder zzp-inhuur bij mkb-klanten administratiekantoren
- Belastingdienst - Current enforcement of false self-employment
- Belastingdienst - 2026 enforcement approach
- Rijksoverheid - Proposed Zelfstandigenwet
- Ondernemersplein - Low-rate presumption of an employment contract
- CBS - Observed shift from self-employed to employee jobs
- UWV - Staffing scarcity and capacity pressure
- CBS - Wage cost when freelance work moves onto payroll
