Self-employed IT experts: Overprotected by the state

August 1, 2022

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self employed it experts overprotected by the state

Instead of offering IT freelancers legal certainty, the state wants to protect them from exploitation. This does not protect them, but rather complicates their situation.

The legislator wants to protect people who work in the low-wage sector from exploitation and provide them with social security. If there is a suspicion of bogus self-employment, the German Pension Insurance (DRV) therefore checks the exact circumstances of the employment relationship. That is a good thing. With the same criteria that the DRV uses to check the activities of delivery service cyclists, department store detectives and trade fair hostesses, it also checks the work of self-employed IT experts. That’s a problem.

The mean IT freelancer is a free spirit. He would like to be his own boss and contribute his expertise to a wide variety of projects. Because his specialized know-how is in high demand, he can charge reasonable daily rates and thus ensure sufficient social security. He works closely with permanent colleagues in project teams, and mostly uses the customer’s infrastructure – if only for security reasons. Such aspects of their work, which self-employed IT professionals take for granted, are often considered in the status determination procedure as indications of bogus self-employment.

It is clear to everyone involved that the determination of the status of the so-called modern knowledge workers is not running smoothly. At the beginning of the year, the legislature reformed the procedure. The DRV presents the current version in a 141-page letter. Among other things, it cites the “Act on the Simplification of Administrative Procedures in Social Law” and the “Act on the Elimination of Dispensable Orders in Written Form in Administrative Law” as the basis.

With so much simplification and dismantling, it is believed that status determination should soon be possible on a beer coaster. In fact, the new main form for the assessment procedure has grown from seven to nine pages, and more forms have been added. This does not serve the self-employed in IT and their clients. You want less paperwork and a better understanding of the specifics of IT projects. They need clear and unambiguous criteria for the determination as well as legal certainty for the notifications instead of overprotection by the state.

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