
Attorney at Law
In November, we wrote a blog on pseudo self-employment and the lifting of the Dutch tax authority’s enforcement moratorium from 1 January 2025 onwards. The article provided a step-by-step plan for identifying collaborations with self-employed people and adjusting them where necessary and possible. The aim of all this was to avoid abusive employment relationships (as much as possible) and to be prepared for the Dutch tax authority’s doubling down on enforcement regarding pseudo self-employment.
On 18 December 2024, the State Secretary for Finance further informed the Lower House about the enforcement plans for 2025. In addition, the Dutch tax authority has published its Enforcement Plan for labour relations 2025 . The conclusion is that a number of mitigating measures have been taken, softening the blow from enforcement in 2025. In brief, these measures are as follows.
The main update is that in 2025, the Dutch tax authority will impose no fines whatsoever on employers who continue to work with self-employed workers on a pseudo self-employment basis. This applies to both default penalties and punitive fines (unless malicious intent is involved). It was already known that no punitive fines would be imposed; so what is new is that no default penalties will follow.
However, more relaxed measures have been announced to give companies and organisations more time to adjust their operations.
The Dutch tax authority has further announced the following relaxations in its enforcement plans:
The measures announced by the Dutch tax authority may reduce the sense of urgency to adjust business operations with self-employed workers. However, despite the soft landing, which is certainly in place, as far as we are concerned, organisations would do well to make a start in 2025. Now is the time to develop a new and future-proof method of managing and embedding self-employed workers at clients’ workplaces.
Full enforcement will actually begin in 2026, meaning the reimposition of fines.
We are aware that many of our clients will be affected by Dutch tax authority enforcement. Within our team, Angela van der Does-Mekes and Gerard Zuidgeest deal with this topic on a daily basis. Do you also have questions and want to exchange views on whether the self-employed workers you hire are not actually employed? Then please contact either of these, or one of our other specialists.
The Dutch tax authority is again taking pseudo self-employment enforcement measures. La Gro – keeping you informed of the latest updates, including that no fines will follow in 2025.
Attorney at Law