Hiring IT freelancers safely under the Wet DBA

When you hire an IT freelancer, you run a risk if the Tax Authority later views that collaboration as disguised employment. This is called false self-employment: a contractor on paper, an employee in practice. The consequence is a back-payment of payroll tax and contributions — and that bill lands with you as the client, not the freelancer.

Since 1 January 2025 the Tax Authority enforces fully against false self-employment again; the earlier enforcement moratorium has been lifted. Enforcement in 2026 has nuance: penalty fines can be imposed for intent or gross negligence, but not yet default fines. Back-payments over 2025 and 2026 are possible. The risk is therefore real, even without every mistake immediately leading to a fine.

For IT hiring this matters because freelance assignments in IT are often long-term and embedded — exactly the situation that can tip towards employment. A cloud engineer who runs in your team for months, or a network administrator who effectively becomes part of your organisation, calls for a deliberate structuring of the assignment.

There is no simple yes-or-no rule for whether someone is genuinely independent. Instead, nine viewpoints weigh together, derived from the Supreme Court's Deliveroo ruling of 2023. The core: there is no ranking and no sum. The Tax Authority and the courts look at the overall picture, in which all circumstances are considered in relation to one another.

In short, the nine points revolve around: the nature and duration of the work, how work and working hours are determined, embedding in your organisation, whether the work must be done personally, how the contract came about, how and how much is paid, whether the freelancer bears commercial risk, and whether they behave as an entrepreneur. One strong point towards independence does not automatically outweigh three points towards employment — it is about the whole.

For IT hiring, embedding is often the trickiest point: freelancers quickly become part of a team. The rate, by contrast, is rarely a problem, because IT rates sit well above the risk level. Want to know exactly how each of the nine points works and what to look out for? Read the 9 viewpoints of the Wet DBA: when is a contractor falsely self-employed?

The biggest misconception about the Wet DBA is that a good contract covers you. It does not. The Tax Authority always looks at the actual execution, not just the paper. If in practice you act as employer and employee, no agreement helps. A BV does not automatically protect you either: there too the authority looks at the actual working relationship, not the legal form.

A model agreement is therefore a tool, not a guarantee. The real protection lies in how you structure the assignment: do you scope it to a result, avoid authority and embedding, and let the freelancer work as an entrepreneur? Then you steer the overall picture towards genuine independence.

State of the legislation (2026). The legislation around self-employment is moving, but the nine viewpoints remain the foundation. The clarification part of the VBAR Act has been withdrawn. A legal presumption has been adopted: at a rate below around 38 euros per hour a contractor can claim to actually be an employee, with an intended start date of 1 January 2027 — this rarely affects IT hiring, because IT rates sit well above that. In addition, the government is working on a new Self-Employment Act with a self-employment test and a working-relationship test; it has not yet been formally submitted and has no fixed implementation date. For you as a client, little changes at the core for now: it still revolves around direction, embedding and working for your own account and risk. For the current rules, always consult rijksoverheid.nl and belastingdienst.nl.

At Maedium I deliberately watch the nine viewpoints with every placement. In both structures the IT professional remains an independent contractor, without embedding or authority. Under intermediation I sit contractually in between and take on the risk, safeguarded via my model agreement and contract structuring. Under brokerage I safeguard compliance in the background.

What I do not do is sell you false certainty. The Tax Authority always looks at practice, not just paper. That is why we structure the assignment together so that the independence genuinely holds. In doubt about a specific assignment? Then we walk through the nine points together and look at which structure fits — free of charge and without obligation.

What is false self-employment?

False self-employment is a situation where someone works as a contractor on paper but functions as an employee in practice. The Tax Authority assesses this using nine viewpoints from the Deliveroo ruling. In cases of false self-employment, you as the client risk a back-payment of payroll tax and contributions.

Do I as the client run the risk, or the freelancer?

The risk of a back-payment of payroll tax and contributions lies with you as the client. That is why it is in your interest to structure the assignment as independent — not only for the freelancer, but above all for yourself.

Is a model agreement enough to avoid risk?

No. A model agreement is a tool, not a guarantee. The paper must match practice. If you effectively act as employer and employee, no contract helps. The actual execution is decisive.

Does intermediation fully remove the DBA risk?

Intermediation manages the risk and shifts it contractually to Maedium, safeguarded via a model agreement and contract structuring. But it does not fully remove it: even under intermediation the actual execution remains decisive. That is why we structure the assignment to be substantively independent, not just contractually.

Under intermediation, does Maedium become the freelancer's employer?

No. Under intermediation Maedium is the contractual intermediary: you contract Maedium, Maedium contracts the contractor. The freelancer remains an independent contractor. Maedium does not become an employer and pays no payroll tax or employer charges — it is not secondment and not payroll.

Does the 38-euro legal presumption also apply to IT professionals?

In theory yes, in practice rarely. The legal presumption applies at rates below around 38 euros per hour. IT freelancers usually charge 45 to 120 euros per hour, well above that threshold, so for IT hiring this point is usually not relevant.

Please note: regulations around the Wet DBA may change. For current information, consult rijksoverheid.nl or belastingdienst.nl. This article is general information, not legal advice. For complex situations we advise consulting an employment lawyer or tax advisor.