Dutch solo self-employed numbers have fallen sharply since enforcement against disguised self-employment resumed

The number of active solo self-employed people in the Netherlands has fallen by 12.6%, around 138,000 people, in eighteen months, according to research by ZiPconomy, HeadFirst and ONL voor Ondernemers reported on 5 October 2026. The researchers date the decline from 1 January 2025, when the Belastingdienst resumed full enforcement against schijnzelfstandigheid, or disguised self-employment.

The figure is the researchers’ own, built on CBS and Chamber of Commerce data, and two of the three organisations behind it represent the freelance supply side and have an interest in looser enforcement. The national statistics office’s published series points the same way without matching the number: CBS recorded 62,000 fewer solo self-employed in 2025, six consecutive quarterly falls, and a Q2 2026 total 131,000 below Q4 2024. Minister Aartsen has cited a figure of roughly 140,000.

The researchers’ claim that the people leaving have not moved into permanent jobs is the contested part, and it is the part that would matter most if it holds.

Why this matters

If you freelance in the Netherlands, or for Dutch clients from elsewhere in Europe, this is the measurable consequence of enforcement that until 2025 existed on paper only. Dutch clients have become materially more cautious about engaging individuals directly, and the caution shows up as shorter contracts, more intermediary and payroll structures, and more refusals to contract with a one-person business at all.

For remote freelancers outside the Netherlands the effect is indirect but real: a Dutch client assessing whether you are genuinely independent is assessing it against the same enforcement risk, and that is why the draft Zelfstandigenwet criteria on client numbers and control over time and place are worth reading now rather than in 2028.

Context

The Netherlands suspended enforcement of the self-employment rules for years under the DBA law before restarting on 1 January 2025. The hourly-rate presumption of employment below €38 per hour follows on 31 December 2026, and the Zelfstandigenwet safe harbour is a 2028 proposal currently out for consultation.

What to watch

The CBS quarterly series rather than the industry figure, and whether the Q3 2026 release shows the fall levelling off.