Dutch enforcement and a new low-rate presumption make contractor hiring a cash decision.
On Monday morning, a founder adds a familiar contractor to next week’s roster. The customer deadline is fixed, the specialist knows the systems and the rate has worked for months. At month-end, the invoice arrives with hours, VAT and a payment term. The bookkeeper posts it as an external cost.
Nothing in that routine entry looks like payroll. Yet the company may set the hours, direct the work and rely on the same person every week. When a relationship works like employment, the invoice tells only part of the story. Payroll tax can sit behind it.
That question has gained weight since the Belastingdienst resumed normal enforcement against false self-employment on 1 January 2025. The immediate task is to understand whether today’s working relationship supports today’s tax treatment.
The contract does not run the working day
The current assessment considers all relevant facts and circumstances. Belastingdienst guidance uses factors drawn from the Deliveroo judgment. No single feature decides the outcome.
A KvK registration, a written contractor agreement and regular VAT invoices all matter. So do freedom over hours, supervision, substitution, commercial risk, integration into the client’s organisation and the contractor’s wider market position. Together, they describe the actual relationship.
Take a small technical company that hires a specialist for a six-month project. At the start, the work is clearly defined. The specialist chooses the method, brings particular expertise and serves other clients.
Three months later, deadlines tighten. The founder sets daily priorities, adds the specialist to internal meetings and expects fixed availability. The agreement has stayed the same. The relationship has not.
This is where ordinary governance matters. Contractor status is not a label attached on the first day. Working arrangements can shift through growth, new management routines or a fixed roster. A material relationship needs another look when the work changes.
The cash exposure arrives late
A payroll-tax correction rarely appears when the original hiring choice is made. By the time an assessment arrives, the contractor invoices may be paid, the customer work completed and the margin reported.
Where it establishes false self-employment, the Belastingdienst may impose payroll-tax corrections and additional assessments. The normal reach begins on 1 January 2025. In cases such as intentional false self-employment or failure to follow an earlier instruction, the period can extend up to five years.
From 1 January 2026, culpability penalties may also apply in relevant cases. The Belastingdienst has said it will not impose default penalties during 2026.
For a small company, timing often hurts more than the accounting principle. Historical contractor costs have already left the bank. A later assessment creates a new liability while the company may also need to fund payroll, agency cover or a redesigned independent assignment.
The useful finance question is direct: if this person were treated as an employee from 1 January 2025, what could enter payroll tax payable, and when could the company fund it?
That calculation gives the founder a view of cash, margins and the next tax payment. It also forces the business to see the full price of labour rather than only the contractor’s rate.
The hourly rate gains legal weight
A further change takes effect on 31 December 2026. A worker paid less than €38 per hour may invoke a legal presumption that an employment contract exists. The client must then show that no employment contract exists.
The rate does not decide employment status on its own. Neither does skill. Still, the new presumption gives lower-priced contractor work an additional consequence. The hourly rate is no longer only a purchasing figure. It can determine who must make the case.
The government is also working on a Zelfstandigenwet intended to give genuine entrepreneurship clearer room while tackling false self-employment. That work deserves attention, but it does not suspend current enforcement or replace the present assessment.
The direction is clear enough for business life. The Netherlands is seeking a more visible boundary while expecting employers and clients to govern the relationships they already use. A future test will not change the working day behind this month’s invoice.
A smaller contractor market sharpens the choice
The labour market adds pressure. CBS reported that nearly 1.5 million people had self-employment as their main job in the second quarter of 2026. That figure includes more than zzp workers. The number of zzp workers had fallen for six consecutive quarters and stood 131,000 below the fourth quarter of 2024.
Businesses may respond by holding more tightly to familiar contractors. That can support continuity. It can also create fixed hours, recurring duties and deeper integration. The specialist in our technical company may slowly stop looking like an outside supplier and start carrying an internal role.
Moving a person onto payroll is not a cost-free answer. CBS counted around 2.7 million flexible employees in the same quarter, while Dutch rules for flexible and agency work are becoming firmer. The full price includes wages, holiday pay, possible pension costs, absence exposure, administration, supervision and customer pricing.
For the ledger, the discipline is modest. View recurring contractor spend alongside assignment duration, roster use and managerial control. Review material relationships when the operating reality changes. Revisit customer margins if a contractor role can no longer be priced as external capacity.
The invoice remains real. So does the work behind it. The strongest position comes when the agreement, the working day and the accounts describe the same relationship. That alignment gives the founder a clearer view of labour cost before it becomes a much larger cash issue.
Review material contractor relationships and quantify the potential payroll-tax exposure before it becomes a cash liability.
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
- Zelfstandigenwet: nieuw toetsingskader in beeld
- Belastingdienst - Current enforcement and payroll-tax exposure
- Belastingdienst - Existing assessment remains fact-based
- Rijksoverheid - Government policy reset and lower-rate legal presumption
- CBS - Latest contractor-market movement
- CBS - Longer-term reduction in zzp work
- Rijksoverheid - Alternative flexible hiring is also becoming more structured
- Belastingdienst
