How the proposed Dutch Zelfstandigenwet would create a safe harbour for freelancers

The proposal contains two tests. The self-employment test concerns the freelancer as a business. It looks at matters including registration with the Chamber of Commerce, a VAT number, a separate account for business transactions and responsibility for invoicing. Someone else may carry out invoicing on the freelancer’s behalf. The test also considers the freelancer’s customers and provisions for business risks. 

Under the consultation proposal, the freelancer must have had at least three different clients or customers in total across the current and previous calendar years. The proposal also refers to annual spending on provisions against business risks, although the required amount has not yet been specified. 

The working-relationship test concerns the particular assignment. It asks whether the parties intend to work outside an employment contract and whether the freelancer can decide how to carry out the work. A client may specify what needs to be delivered; the test also looks at the freelancer’s freedom over how to deliver it. Working time, location and whether the freelancer works for their own account and risk are relevant, with exceptions for work that can only be done at a particular place or time. 

Both tests would need to be met in practice. An established freelance business would still need to assess each assignment. Equally, contractual terms promising independence would need to reflect the way the parties actually work.

Failing to qualify for the proposed safe harbour would not automatically make the freelancer an employee. The relationship would instead be assessed under the existing rules for determining whether there is an employment contract. Depending on the circumstances, that assessment could still find genuine self-employment. 

The proposed tests therefore offer a route to greater certainty for qualifying relationships. Registration, multiple customers or invoices would not settle the position on their own; the conditions of the individual assignment remain important. 

The Zelfstandigenwet entered public consultation on 1 October 2026, with responses open until 29 October 2026. The government is aiming for January 2028 as the date of entry into force. The text may change during the legislative process, and businesses cannot rely on the proposed safe harbour under current law. 

Meanwhile, enforcement against false self-employment continues under the existing framework. If a relationship presented as freelance work is found to be employment, the client may face payroll tax liabilities as well as employment and pension-law risks.

The proposal examines independence at two levels: how the freelancer runs their business and how they work on a particular assignment. Clients and freelancers should continue assessing assignments under current law, each accounting for its own part of the relationship. The client should examine how it directs and integrates the work; the freelancer should be able to explain how they run their business. 

For a marketplace such as Zooly, the proposed structure matches an assessment made once for the freelancer’s business and again for each service agreement. Both the freelancer and the client have a part in describing the working relationship. Each client–freelancer assignment would still need to reflect genuine independence in practice. 

A record of agreed terms helps only when it matches what happens during the work. Assignment runs, such as timesheet patterns, and the share of a freelancer’s revenue coming from one client can matter as much as the contract itself. The proposal makes those practical facts especially relevant to the discussion, while the final legal requirements remain subject to the legislative process.