VBAR: upcoming changes to definitions of employment relationships

How will employers be effected?

To combat bogus self-employment, a new law is imminent that may have consequences for you, if you outsource work to a self-employed person: the VBAR bill (Clarification of Assessment of Employment Relations and Legal Presumption) was submitted to the Council of State in June 2024 by Minister Van Gennip of Social Affairs and Employment. In all likelihood the law will come into force on 1st January 2025 and will be the new standard used to determine whether there is (false) self-employment. If you work with self-employed persons, it is important that you understand which criteria will apply to your employment collaborations, to ensure they remain legally valid.

Do you work with a model agreement? Here also, changes are imminent!
As of 2025, it is not only the DBA that will be enforced, the Tax and Customs Administration will no longer approve model agreements. In September the Dutch government published this statement on its (website).
"The use of such model agreements is no longer tenable, because model agreements cannot provide certainty in advance about working outside the employment contract. This depends on how work is done in practice, not on what is written in a contract.  Current model contracts will continue to be respected until the end date of the agreements.'

Why VBAR?

In recent years, there has been a major increase in the number of self-employed people in the Netherlands. However, according to the government, in some of these cases there is no real self-employment. These self-employed persons work, voluntarily or not under a similar relationship of authority as employees, while employers do not comply with the obligations that apply to their staff, such as accruing pension, paying payroll tax and contributing to Employee insurance. In order to better trace this group of so-called false self-employed workers and to prevent self-employed persons from having the obligations but not the rights of employees, the VBAR has been created. The new laws have been more clearly defined to ensure that you, as an employer, pay taxes for staff and protect employees against one-sided employment relationships, such as  being (forced) to work as a self-employed person under a relationship of authority.

What are the criteria for self-employment?

In some cases there were previously no clear criteria to determine whether someone is self-employed or employed, the VBAR has (more) clearly defined definitions. Please check carefully whether your collaborations with freelancers meet the criteria set by the VBAR for self-employed persons:

• Relationship of authority: there are no hierarchical instructions and supervision by the client (e.g. management by a salaried manager).

• Embedding in the organisation: the work they perform may not form an integrated part of the regular business activities (e.g. they work on an assignment, a defined project).

• Entrepreneurship: they must bear entrepreneurial risks, such as investments and profits.

• Multiple clients: they do not work exclusively for 1 client.

The above criteria were already in place, but were less clearly defined and therefore easier to circumvent. You may like to read this article to help you determine whether a person can be considered a self employed entrepreneur.

• What is new is the criterion for the required minimum hourly rate for self-employed persons: if the hourly rate they are paid as a self-employed person is € 33 or less, this will be seen as an indication of false self-employment.

The expectation is that establishing clear criteria such as these will prevent disguised employment by providing a fair and objective standard for establishing whether self employed people have genuine independence.

Consequences for employers

Do you work with freelancers? Be prepared!

1. When working with self-employed persons, check whether the agreements you have with them are in accordance with the VBAR. Is this not the case? Then, when the VBAR comes into force, you will be obliged to either draw up an employment contract and hire the self-employed person(s) as an employee, or to contractually adjust the agreements you have with the self-employed person(s), whereby, for example, the hourly rate and the interpretation of work and obligations are in accordance with the criteria that the new laws set out for self-employment.
2. In the case of new employment relationships, you must determine, according to the criteria of the VBAR, whether an appointment on a self-employed basis is legally valid or whether it must be filled an employee. When the VBAR bill comes into effect, you will be responsible for ensuring that the rights and obligations of yourself and the employee/self-employed person are, in accordance with the new law.
3. Do your employment relationships not comply with VBAR? Then self-employed persons can go to court and claim an employment contract and the burden of proof will lie with you as an employer. If you are unable to demonstrate that there is a legally valid reason for the collaboration on a self-employed basis? It is likely that the falsely self employed person will be vindicated if the VBAR is brought to bear on the case.

Want to know more?

Are you unsure whether the definitions of your employment relationships complies with the rules of the upcoming VBAR? Make sure you are well informed! Zipconomy  published a detailed explanation (in Dutch) of the (new) criteria for the VBAR in September 2024. If you would like personal advice about your situation, we are always happy to discuss this with you. Would you like more background information on this topic?  Lupacompany  has also published articles previously about the  Criteria for independence and rising self employment in the Netherlands.