False self-employment: what it means for the freelancers in your startup

Startups run on freelancers, and that is the pattern enforcement looks at. Since 2025 the tax administration applies the normal rules again, and since 2026 a penalty is possible. Here is what the assessment turns on, where the legislation stands in September 2026, and what a reclassification costs you administratively.

Why this is a startup question

Startups work with freelancers. A developer for three months, a designer on Fridays, someone on growth who is effectively full time. That is exactly the pattern the tax administration looks at: the same person, many hours, over a long stretch, doing work that resembles what an employee would do.

This article is not about whether your freelancer is an employee. We cannot answer that for you and we do not. It is about what changed in 2025, what the assessment turns on, and what it means for your administration if a relationship is classified differently.

What changed in 2025

Since 1 January 2025 the tax administration applies the normal rules again rather than only issuing guidance. In 2025 no penalties were imposed. Since 1 January 2026 a culpability penalty is possible; a default penalty is still not imposed in 2026.

There is a limit on corrections and additional assessments: they go back to 1 January 2025 and no further, unless there is intent or an earlier instruction was ignored. Then it can go back five years.

What the assessment turns on

Not your contract. How you actually work together. An agreement stating that someone is self-employed weighs less than the practice of every day. The points that count:

• Does the freelancer set their own working hours, or do you?
• Does the freelancer decide how the work gets done?
• Does the freelancer use their own tools and their own systems?
• Is the work the same as what your own employees do, and does it happen at your location?
• Does the freelancer take direction from your managers?
• Does the freelancer supervise your employees?

No single point decides it on its own. It is the whole picture, which is exactly why no simple checklist guarantees you safety.

Where the legislation stands, in September 2026

This subject moves, so it needs a date on it. On 6 March 2026 the cabinet withdrew the part of the VBAR bill that would have clarified when someone works as a genuine independent. That part had too little support and created uncertainty in the market. Work is now going into a Self-Employment Act to take its place.

What is being accelerated instead is the legal presumption for lower rates: someone working at a rate up to 38 euros an hour, measured from 1 January 2026, can more easily invoke employee rights, and it falls to the client to show there is no employment relationship.

Do not base a decision on this paragraph without checking the source underneath it, because it may have been updated since this article was written.

What a reclassification means administratively

This is the part that falls in our corner, and it is more work than founders expect.

• The person enters your payroll administration, retroactively to the moment the relationship is seen as employment.
• Payroll taxes have to be paid over that period, and you cannot always recover them.
• Depending on the sector a pension obligation can come with it.
• The invoices you booked as costs have to be reclassified as payroll costs, which touches your figures over closed periods.
• Your VAT position changes: VAT you deducted on those invoices no longer belongs there.

For a startup with a few freelancers who have been on board for months, that can mean a correction across several quarters. Which is exactly why you do not want to discover it at the moment an investor is looking at your books.

What we do and do not do here

We do not assess your working relationships or your contracts. That is employment law with consequences reaching well beyond the administration, and it belongs with a lawyer or a specialised adviser. Run into that question and we will say so and refer you on.

What we do: your payroll administration and your payroll tax returns, including the corrections if a relationship changes. And we flag it when we see a pattern in the administration worth noticing, such as one freelancer invoicing a fixed amount every month that looks like a salary. That is a signal you want to have yourself, not a judgement about the relationship.

In short

• Since 1 January 2025 the tax administration enforces normally again; since 1 January 2026 a culpability penalty is possible.
• Corrections go back to 1 January 2025, and up to five years on intent or an ignored instruction.
• How you actually work together weighs more than what the contract says.
• The clarification part of the VBAR was withdrawn on 6 March 2026; the legal presumption up to 38 euros an hour is being accelerated.
• On reclassification you get a payroll administration retroactively, plus corrections to your costs and your VAT.
• We do the payroll administration and the returns; assessing the relationship belongs with a lawyer.