Wet DBA and False Self-Employment: Knowledge Document for the Organisation

Introduction

This document is intended as a foundation for anyone at HeadFirst Group who deals with the engagement of self-employed professionals (zzp'ers) — including those who don't come from the industry. We first explain the basic concepts, then the current state of the legislation, and finally how HeadFirst Group handles this in practice.

An important warning up front: this topic is constantly evolving. Laws that are "in preparation" at the time of writing may already have been passed, amended, or scrapped by the time you read this. This document provides a current overview, but it is not legal advice and does not replace the most recent internal work instructions or advice from Legal. If in doubt about a specific situation: always consult the latest version of the internal guidelines or Legal.

After going through this document you will be able to:

• explain what the Wet DBA is and what false self-employment means;
• describe the current state of enforcement by the Tax Authority;
• explain the difference between the Vbar, the legal presumption, and the Zelfstandigenwet;
• recognise the main assessment criteria for self-employment;
• describe HeadFirst Group's assessment process for engaging self-employed professionals.

1. What is the Wet DBA, and what is false self-employment?

The Wet DBA (Deregulation of Assessment of Employment Relationships Act) has existed since 2016. The law itself mainly regulates something organisational: it abolished the old VAR declaration (a kind of indemnity certificate self-employed professionals could previously apply for) and gave the Tax Authority the power to check retrospectively whether someone is rightly working as a self-employed professional. An important misconception: the Wet DBA itself does not contain clear, hard criteria for when someone may or may not work as a self-employed professional. Those criteria come from case law (see Chapter 4).

False self-employment means: someone works on paper as an independent entrepreneur (with their own business, invoices, a contract for services), but in practice their way of working is barely distinguishable from that of a regular employee. Think of someone who works for only one client, must adhere to fixed working hours, is directly supervised by a manager, and bears no entrepreneurial risk whatsoever.

Why is this a problem? If false self-employment is found, there is in fact an employment relationship — even if the paperwork says "contract for services." This has consequences for:

• the client: possible retroactive assessment of payroll tax and social security contributions, and potentially a fine;
• the self-employed professional: who may be missing out on rights that come with a regular employment relationship (such as pension accrual or CAO protection), and may also face a reassessment of their own tax filings;
• HeadFirst Group as intermediary: reputational damage and the risk that we have not properly advised our clients.

2. The current state of enforcement

For a long time, an enforcement moratorium applied: the Tax Authority was legally allowed to apply the Wet DBA, but in practice barely did so, except in cases of deliberate bad faith. This created a kind of tacit space in which many organisations engaged self-employed professionals without acute risk of a retroactive tax assessment.

That is over. On 1 January 2025, the enforcement moratorium was lifted. Since then:

• The Tax Authority actively checks for false self-employment again, including through company visits.
• If false self-employment is established, a retroactive assessment of payroll tax and contributions can be imposed, with retroactive effect to 1 January 2025 (and further back in cases of deliberate intent).
• In 2025, no fines were yet imposed (a so-called "soft landing"), although interest was owed on the retroactive assessment.
• From 1 January 2026, penalty fines can also be imposed, in cases of intent or gross negligence — this applies to both the client and the self-employed professional. Ordinary default fines (for simple errors, without intent) are not yet imposed in 2026; that part of the "soft landing" has been partially extended.

In short: the risk has grown step by step since 2025, and will continue to grow. Waiting for "clear legislation" is not a safe strategy — the current rules are already being enforced.

3. Legislation in motion: the Vbar, the legal presumption, and the Zelfstandigenwet

This is the part that causes the most confusion, even within the industry itself. Several legislative proposals have been in progress at the same time, partly merged and partly split apart again. Below is an explanation in understandable steps.

What is the Vbar?

The Vbar (Clarification of Assessment of Employment Relationships and Legal Presumption Act) is a legislative proposal submitted to the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) by the (then) cabinet on 7 July 2025. Its goal: to provide a clearer legal framework for determining when someone is self-employed and when they are an employee. The Vbar originally consisted of two parts:

1. An assessment framework with ten criteria, divided into two categories (characteristics pointing towards employment, such as substantive or organisational supervision; and characteristics pointing towards genuine self-employment, such as bearing one's own risk).
2. A legal presumption of employment for a low hourly rate: if someone works for less than a certain amount per hour (the exact figure varies slightly by source, around €36-€38), that person may initially assume there is an employment contract. The client then has to prove otherwise themselves.

What has changed?

In March 2026, the cabinet decided to scrap the first part (the assessment framework) from the Vbar. The reason: this part caused too much unrest and was seen by many as stricter than existing case law. The cabinet wanted to make clear that working with self-employed professionals, within the existing rules, remains entirely possible.

The second part (the legal presumption) was, however, carried forward — but as a separate, standalone legislative proposal: the Act on the Introduction of a Legal Presumption of an Employment Contract Based on an Hourly Rate. This proposal passed the Senate (Eerste Kamer) on 16 June 2026, and the cabinet aims to have it published (formally: in the Bulletin of Acts and Decrees) by 31 August 2026 at the latest. This legal presumption is therefore set to become law in the short term.

What replaces the scrapped assessment framework?

Instead of the assessment framework from the Vbar, the Zelfstandigenwet (Self-Employment Act) is intended to become the new statutory assessment framework. This law was originally a private member's bill from members of the House of Representatives from the VVD, D66, CDA, and SGP parties, and was embraced by the cabinet in an April 2026 letter to Parliament as the successor to the scrapped Vbar assessment framework. The Zelfstandigenwet works with two tests:

• The self-employment test: concerns the self-employed professional themselves. Does this person behave like an entrepreneur? Do they seek out their own assignments, set their own prices, and have they arranged their own provisions for incapacity for work and pension?
• The working relationship test: concerns the relationship with the client. Is there a relationship of authority (must the self-employed professional do what the client says, in the way the client wants), or is the work genuinely carried out independently?

Important: at the time of writing, the Zelfstandigenwet has not yet been formally submitted to the House of Representatives. Its exact content and effective date are therefore not yet fixed. An intended introduction around 1 January 2028 is currently assumed, but this may change.

Summary: the timeline

What does this mean for now? As long as the Zelfstandigenwet does not exist, the question of whether someone is rightly working as a self-employed professional is still assessed based on the Wet DBA combined with Supreme Court case law — see the next chapter. Once the legal presumption becomes law (expected after the summer of 2026), an extra element will be added for self-employed professionals with a low hourly rate.

4. The current assessment framework: the Deliveroo and Uber criteria

Because the Wet DBA itself does not provide hard criteria, and the Zelfstandigenwet does not yet exist, the assessment is currently based on two well-known Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) rulings: the Deliveroo ruling (concerning food delivery couriers who worked as self-employed professionals) and the Uber ruling (concerning taxi drivers). These rulings provide a set of characteristics with which all facts and circumstances together are weighed — no single characteristic is decisive on its own.

The main questions asked are:

• Is there supervision and control? Does a manager determine what, when, and how the work must be carried out? (Instructions about the end result to be achieved are allowed; instructions about the way of working point more towards an employment relationship.)
• Are the activities embedded in the organisation? Are the same activities also carried out by employees? Is the organisation dependent on this work to function?
• Is there an obligation to carry out the work personally, or may the self-employed professional be substituted by someone else?
• How long does the assignment last, and how usual is that duration? An assignment that has already been running for years starts to resemble a permanent position.
• Does the self-employed professional bear entrepreneurial risk? Do they also have other clients, their own investments, their own equipment, and the risk of not being paid during illness?
• Does the organisation determine working hours and location, and is overtime pay provided (which points towards an employment relationship)?

If the answer to several of these points points towards an employment relationship, the assignment is, in principle, not suitable to be carried out by a self-employed professional. There is no checklist that provides 100% certainty — it is about weighing all the circumstances together, and sometimes one special circumstance (for example, a significantly delayed project) can still justify a longer duration.

5. HeadFirst Group: policy and assessment process

HeadFirst Group has developed an internal policy and assessment process to test the engagement of self-employed professionals in a consistent way. Below is the core of that policy; for the most current work instructions and tools, please refer to the internal documentation.

Who is considered self-employed?

• Zzp'ers (self-employed professionals without staff).
• DGAs (majority shareholder-directors) — even if the DGA's own limited company employs staff, the DGA themselves falls under the Wet DBA as long as they engage themselves. A limited-company structure therefore does not automatically mean there can be no (false) self-employment.
• Partners in a partnership.

Basic principle: engaging self-employed professionals remains possible

The lifting of the enforcement moratorium and the new legislation do not mean that self-employed professionals can no longer be engaged. Engaging someone who is genuinely self-employed remains entirely possible and compliant.

Is the assignment suitable for a self-employed professional?

Before an assignment is put out, it is assessed whether it is actually suitable to be carried out by a self-employed professional. Key questions (based on the Deliveroo/Uber criteria from Chapter 4):

• Are the activities embedded in the organisation, and are they also carried out by the organisation's own staff?
• Is there supervision and control over the way the work is carried out?
• Must the self-employed professional carry out the work personally?
• Is it a long-term assignment (generally 2 years or longer)?
• Does the organisation itself already have the necessary knowledge or skills?
• Are working hours and location determined by the organisation, and is overtime compensated?

If one or more of these questions are answered "yes," the assignment is, in principle, not suitable for a self-employed professional — although it always remains a weighing of all circumstances together.

Assignment and outcome description

A good, written description is essential and must be provided by the client. It includes:

• Assignment description: what activities does the self-employed professional carry out, and what is the goal?
• Outcome description: what concrete results must the self-employed professional deliver? Once the result is achieved, the assignment ends.
• Required skills and experience: what knowledge, tools, certificates, or training are needed?
• Explicitly no supervision and control: instructions may only concern the end result, not the way of working.

Maximum assignment duration

HeadFirst Group's principle is that an assignment may last a maximum of 2 years, with exceptions:

• if it is clearly and substantively described in advance that it concerns a long-term project;
• in the case of substitution during illness or pregnancy, a shorter period applies, never 2 years;
• for peak workload assignments, the circumstances must be carefully considered, but even then the assignment may not run for too long.

The assessment process (the "step-by-step plan")

To consistently assess existing engagements of self-employed professionals, HeadFirst Group uses a step-by-step plan:

1. Create an overview of the self-employed population per client, using an internal weighting file.
2. Assess each self-employed engagement individually based on that assessment framework and HeadFirst Group's policy. This results in a classification:
   • Red: the engagement cannot continue in its current form.
   • Orange: the engagement cannot continue in its current form, but may be able to continue after clarification or adjustment of the situation.
   • Green: continuation is possible; the file must still be checked for completeness.
3. Discuss the outcome with the client. For red and orange engagements, possible alternatives are discussed, such as: replacement with another form of hiring, adjusting the contract type (for example, employment by the client or by a staffing agency), or another structure such as a Statement of Work.

This process is carried out by the Account Director or Account Manager, together with the MSP consultant, supported where necessary by the contract manager. In case of doubt, Legal is available for advice. Importantly: the Tax Authority looks at the actual situation on the work floor — not at what is written on paper. Awareness among all parties in the chain (client, HeadFirst Group, the self-employed professional) is therefore essential.

6. Why this matters to us

• Advisory role towards clients: clients expect us to inform them properly about what is, and in the near future will be, possible with the engagement of self-employed professionals.
• Financial risk: false self-employment can lead to retroactive assessments (and, since 2026, possibly fines) for the client — and indirectly for us as intermediary, if it turns out we did not advise adequately on this.
• Continuity of service: a self-employed engagement that is not compliant may have to be adjusted or ended (sometimes abruptly) — this affects both the client and the self-employed professional themselves.
• Reputation: as a serious, certified intermediary (see also the knowledge documents on SNA and Bovib), it is crucial that we ourselves set a good example in how this legislation is handled.
• A continuously moving playing field: because the legislation is still developing, this topic needs to be brought to attention again periodically — what is correct today may have changed within six months.

7. Glossary

Further information

This document is not legal advice. For the most current internal work instructions, the weighting file, and other documentation: consult the internal knowledge base. If in doubt about a specific situation or case: contact Legal. For the latest state of the legislation: the website of the Dutch government (Rijksoverheid) and the Tax Authority, and trade publications such as ZiPconomy.