Fewer freelancers in Dutch jobs market, as tax office gets tough

The number of freelancers in the Dutch labour market fell by 62,000 last year, with the sharpest decline among young adults going it alone, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

By the end of 2025, 86,000 young people under the age of 28 primarily worked for themselves as a ZZP’er, down 19,000 on 2024, the CBS said.

The downturn among young freelancers is reflected across most of the jobs market, particularly in the care and healthcare industries. There were also fewer freelancers working in farming and the market gardening sector.

In January 2025, the tax office said it would start cracking down on sham self-employment by enforcing regulations introduced by the government in 2016 but which were left dormant.

The rules state that someone is presumed to be self-employed if they carry financial risks, have their own tools and other equipment, have specific expertise that the company renting them does not have and present themselves as a freelancer while working.

The number of people who earned most of their income on a freelance basis had grown to almost 1.3 million by the end of 2024. The social affairs ministry said in July it estimates that around 200,000 of the Netherlands’ registered freelancers should be employed on standard contracts.

The freelancer total fell in the first half of last year as more people took permanent contracts, the CBS said. In the second half of the year, fewer people also registered as independent contractors.