Offshore development and the Dutch DBA law

Does the Dutch DBA law apply to offshore developers?

Yes, if a Dutch company engages an individual developer, wherever they are based, the DBA law can apply. The relevant question is not where the developer sits but whether the working relationship resembles employment. Schijnzelfstandigheid, false self-employment, is assessed on the substance of the arrangement.

What the DBA law actually does

The Wet deregulering beoordeling arbeidsrelaties, in force since 2016 but actively enforced from 2025, sets out when a client engaging a freelancer may be treated as if they are an employer for tax and social security purposes. If the Belastingdienst concludes the arrangement is in fact employment, both the client and the contractor may face back-payments of payroll tax and social premiums.

The three factors the Belastingdienst weighs are:

• Whether the worker is personally obliged to do the work
• Whether the client has authority over how the work is done
• Whether the work is structurally embedded in the client organisation

All three pointing toward employment is the risk zone. Any one of them alone is rarely decisive.

Why offshore IT contractors are not automatically exempt

A common assumption is that a developer in, say, Vietnam or India is outside Dutch jurisdiction. That is not quite right. Dutch payroll tax obligations follow the economic relationship, not a passport. If a Dutch company directs the daily work of an individual foreign contractor, specifies hours, integrates the person into stand-ups and sprints, and the engagement runs for years, the substance can look like employment regardless of the invoice address.

In practice, enforcement against individual foreign contractors is difficult. The real exposure sits with the Dutch client, which may be liable for the employer-side tax obligations it did not withhold.

How structure affects risk

The DBA risk falls significantly when the developer is engaged not as an individual but through a company. Several conditions help:

• The contract is with a legal entity, not a named person
• That entity can substitute another person if needed
• The client does not control working method, only outcomes and deliverables
• The engagement is scoped to outputs, not hours spent on site

None of these is a magic fix, but together they move the arrangement away from the employment indicators the Belastingdienst looks for.

What a compliant offshore engagement looks like

A Dutch company using offshore developers compliantly will typically:

• Contract with a foreign company or agency that employs the engineers
• Ensure the contract references deliverables and responsibilities, not headcount
• Avoid language in contracts or job postings that describes the offshore person as a resource under management
• Keep records showing the offshore entity, not the client, directs how work is done

For engagements structured this way, the DBA law is largely not in play because there is no direct relationship between the Dutch client and an individual freelancer.

What Miyagami's structure looks like

Miyagami places engineers as employees of its own entity, managed from Amsterdam, working from Da Nang. The contract is between the Dutch client and Miyagami as a company. The client works with an assigned engineer but the employment and management relationship sits with Miyagami. Miyagami has designed its contracting specifically for DBA compliance in Dutch engagements.

This is one reason the full-time, minimum three-month model exists. It creates a stable, documentable relationship with a single counterparty rather than a rotating cast of individual freelance invoices.

For a broader picture of what offshore hiring timelines and cost comparisons look like for Dutch companies, see how long it takes to hire an offshore engineer and what a senior engineer in Vietnam costs.

What we test for

DBA compliance is a structural and contractual question rather than a vetting criterion, but it sits alongside the kind of judgement we assess throughout our process. Engineers who understand the boundaries of their role, demonstrated in areas like ownership and judgement by risk, are less likely to drift into working arrangements that create unintended obligations on either side. Clients with questions about how engagements are structured are encouraged to read the full process at how we vet.

Short answers