From employee to freelancer

[Gisele]

Hello,

One of our employees, who is working for us at 70%, would like to stop the permanent employment contract and become a freelancer for us.

Today, she uses part of her time to already do freelancing (consulting) with some clients. She would like to go full-time freelancing and consulting for other clients, including us.

Are there any contractual obligations we need to take into account? For instance, shall she not work for us for 6 months before freelancing for us?

Or the revenue that she will receive or time that she will freelance for us, shall it be somehow "limited"?

Thanks

[Joost Rietveld]

Dear Gisele,

 

To avoid a continuation of employment she indeed needs to be unemployed by you for over six months, before she can start freelancing for you. Moreover, she has to meet the entrepreneur criteria as well. Most notably, there can't be a relationship of authority between you and her.

 

Tread carefully, since you are liable for wage taxes if the tax services determine this to be disguised employment. 

 

 

[Gisele]

Hi, thank you!

Does the person need to have a limited percentage of their time working for us?

 

She'll have other clients, so we don't expect her to be involved with us for more than 60% of their time, but is there a legal limitation?

And regarding the revenue that they will make from us and compared to other collaborations she will do, does it need to be limited to a certain percentage of their total revenue?

In the agreement contract, do we need to have a sort of job description or expected deliverables (to ensure she's not performing exactly the same function as before)?

Thanks 

 

16 augustus 2023 aangepast door Gisele

[Joost Rietveld]

There are no legal time or revenue limits, but as part of establishing how to fiscally judge the relationship between the two of you, the Tax Services will consider it a step in de direction of employment if 70% or more income is derived from one contractor

[Gisele]

Thanks for your help. I've called the Tax and Customs Administration, the Chamber of Commerce and the Tax information line and none are able to give me any information. When I asked what website from the government (or chamber of commerce) would have the information they don't know. I can't even refer to any "law" or written website where the information is outlined unfortunately. 

[Joost Rietveld]

The criteria for fiscal entrepreneurship are not set in stone. They've evolved over the years based on jurisprudence. 

 

The tax services have a specific page in Dutch called ondernemerscheck. You can ask Google to translate the text on this page