Dutch draft Zelfstandigenwet makes freedom to choose when and where you work a test of genuine self-employment
The Dutch government published the draft text of the Zelfstandigenwet on 1 October 2026 and opened it for public consultation until 29 October 2026. The bill creates a safe harbour: meet its criteria and your working relationship is treated as genuine self-employment rather than disguised employment.
Two cumulative tests apply. The zelfstandigentoets looks at the person and asks for Chamber of Commerce registration, a VAT number, a separate business bank account, own invoicing and payment terms, at least three clients over two years, and a minimum spend, not yet set, on provisions against entrepreneurial risk such as disability cover, pension and liability insurance. The werkrelatietoets looks at the individual assignment, and its third criterion is that the self-employed person is free to determine when and where the work is carried out, with carve-outs only where the work is genuinely location-bound or time-bound.
The structure is all-or-nothing. Fail a single criterion and the safe harbour is gone, although failing it does not automatically make you an employee.
Why this matters
For anyone freelancing in the Netherlands, the location-and-time criterion turns remote working from a preference into evidence. A client who dictates your hours or requires you on their premises without a genuine operational reason is now feeding a test that can cost you your self-employed status. The practical read is that remote, outcome-based assignments with your own scheduling are the safest shape of contract, and that written terms should record who controls time and place.
The three-clients-over-two-years threshold is the harder one. Freelancers who have built a stable life around one or two long-standing clients, a common pattern among people working remotely for foreign companies, would sit outside the safe harbour on that criterion alone.
Context
This is a proposal, not law. It still has to go to the Raad van State and then through both chambers of parliament, and the earliest realistic entry into force is 1 January 2028. There is no transitional law in the draft, so it would apply immediately to existing relationships as well as new ones.
It is a separate instrument from the hourly-rate presumption of employment, which takes effect on 31 December 2026 and shifts the burden of proof to the client below €38 per hour. The two are often conflated and should not be.
What to watch
The consultation closes on 29 October at internetconsultatie.nl, and the minimum-provisions figure has not been set. Anyone freelancing in the Netherlands can respond.