But that news actually means there is no news. Minister Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment answers a set of parliamentary questions on the issue. And he informs the House on the progress of the Labour Relations Monitoring Plan.
Enforcement moratorium
The suspension of enforcement of the DBA Act – the enforcement moratorium – ran until 1 January 2020. This has now been extended to the (intended) commencement date of the replacement for the DBA Act: 1 January 2021 (though there are already rumours that there are fears this date too will not be met – by a long way). This is, of course, obvious and is therefore not news.
However, enforcement is being tightened up slightly once again. Initially, only clients who were clearly acting in bad faith were targeted by the Tax and Customs Administration. This now applies to those acting in bad faith and, from 1 January 2020, also to clients who do not (or do not sufficiently) follow the Tax and Customs Administration’s instructions within a reasonable period of time.
Capacity
The Tax and Customs Administration’s capacity for assessing DBA situations will be doubled in 2019, from the current 30 FTE to 60 FTE. Experienced audit staff will be redeployed for this purpose. In addition, there will be a further increase to 80 FTEs in 2020, for which the Tax and Customs Administration will recruit and train new staff.
Koolmees notes that, in the current situation, verifying the classification of the employment relationship is a very labour-intensive task for the Tax and Customs Administration. This is because the Tax and Customs Administration bears a heavy burden of proof when imposing additional tax assessments and fines.
Minimum rate
Furthermore reports The government has announced that, under the new legislation, the minimum hourly rate will be set at €16. Self-employed people working for less than €16 per hour would automatically be considered to be in employment. Pay-as-you-earn tax and social security contributions would then have to be paid on their behalf.
Self-employed people with an hourly rate of €75 or more would be given the option to opt out of the scheme.