The federal coalition agreement : what will change for companies when hiring freelancers?

The federal coalition agreement 2025-2029 brings some important changes for companies that hire freelancers. The focus is on stricter controls on false self-employment, administrative simplification and tax reforms.

1) Growing pool of freelancers

With new regulations and tax changes, freelancing is becoming more attractive than ever, which is expected to lead to a larger pool of independent professionals in the market. This is good news for businesses, as it means more choice and specialized expertise at their fingertips.

2) Alternative Forms of Cooperation May Become Interesting

With tighter controls on false self-employment and some tax changes, companies would do well to take a critical look at how they use freelancers. While self-employment is still a valuable solution for short-term and specialized assignments, alternative contract forms may be more interesting in some cases.

One such alternative is to engage a broker (such as GIGHOUSE), where independent consultants are engaged through an outside agency. This model provides additional legal security and makes it easier to use freelancers flexibly without the risk of them being considered employees.

3) Changes in the Tax Treatment of Freelancers.

While the tax rules for companies that employ self-employed workers remain largely unchanged, there are some relevant changes that may affect working with freelancers. At their core, companies continue to use freelancers in a financially attractive way. This means that companies should expect little additional cost in the short term when hiring outside specialists.

In addition, exemptions and subsidies for innovation and digitization will be maintained. This is good news for companies that regularly work with freelance IT specialists, software developers and consultants. Incentives for digital transformation and technological innovation remain available, giving companies additional financial room to hire external expertise.

4) Stricter Control of Apparent Self-Employment

The government is introducing stricter controls on the use of freelancers to combat abuse of the self-employed status. This means that from now on, companies that regularly work with self-employed workers will have to be better able to justify why a freelancer is considered self-employed and not an employee. Especially long-term collaborations and assignments where the freelancer structurally performs the same tasks as an employee will be closely monitored.

There will be targeted inspections of companies that use freelancers for assignments that resemble permanent jobs in terms of duration and content. Sectors in which false self-employment is common, such as IT, marketing, consulting and logistics, will be given extra scrutiny. In addition, there will be an increased focus on self-employed people in secondary employment to prevent companies from hiring them in a way that should actually fall under an employee contract. If audits reveal that a freelancer is in fact an employee, fines and social security contributions can be retroactively recovered.

For companies, this means they need to be more careful when hiring self-employed workers. It is essential to draw up clear contracts that explicitly state that the freelancer is not an employee and what agreements result. In addition, it is wise to limit the risk of disguised labor by not using freelancers exclusively for a single task or client.