MPs urge minister to delay tougher checks, fines for freelancers

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Companies making use of freelancers who should be employed on normal contracts should not be fined from next year, a majority of MPs have told the outgoing cabinet.

Ministers had planned to get tough on sham self-employment, and the tax office is preparing to increase its checks on companies in 2026 – and issue fines to those found to be breaking the rules.

But MPs, including parliamentarians from the cabinet parties VVD and BBB have called for restraint, saying they are worried about the impact on sectors which traditionally use a large number of freelance workers, such as healthcare.

They have called for a further three-month delay in implementing the legislation, and say fines should only be issued to companies which deliberately break the law. Inspectors, they say, should also focus on sectors where sham self-employment is a real problem.

The decision is up to tax minister Eugène Heijnen, who has not yet commented. He was earlier in favour of a delay but was overruled by the rest of the cabinet, the Telegraaf said on Friday.

• What does the crackdown on sham self-employment mean for you?

The rules, which actually came into force in 2016 but have been ignored until now, state that someone is presumed to be self-employed if they carry financial risks, have their own tools and other equipment, have specific expertise that the company renting them does not have, and present themselves as a freelancer while working.

The Volkskrant said earlier this month that the expected mass exit of freelancers has not taken place. Despite warnings of “empty classrooms” and a “care infarction”, 94% of freelancers have continued working, the paper said.

Nevertheless, figures from the national statistics agency CBS show that, for the first time in more than 10 years, the number of freelancers has fallen. In the third quarter, the CBS counted 73,000 fewer freelancers than a year earlier, marking what chief economist Piet Hein van Mulligen said was “a clear break” with the previous decade of rapid growth.

Around 1.2 million people in the Netherlands currently work as freelancers. The social affairs ministry said in July it estimates that around 200,000 of the Netherlands’ registered freelancers should be employed on standard contracts.