By Elvira Iannone, Secretary for Public Affairs (BDÜ)
The fact that German legislation lacks a definition for self-employment has been widely known for more than 20 years, and the consequences of this gap are becoming increasingly serious. Translators and interpreters are particularly affected, since 80–90% of members of Germany’s Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ), as well as many more non-BDÜ members in Germany, work on a freelance or otherwise self-employed basis.
The administrative focus on self-employment lies mainly in efforts to combat the evasion of social security contributions. While employees share the costs of health insurance and pensions with their employers, the self-employed cover the costs of health insurance themselves and can choose whether or not to contribute towards the state pension scheme. Some employers exploit this framework by misclassifying individuals as self-employed to avoid contributions. In such a situation, affected individuals and supervisory authorities may initiate a procedure to determine whether an individual really is self-employed or should be classified as an employee.
This same issue has also already been addressed at EU level, regarding the effects of the platform economy. The outcome of this is Directive (EU) 2024/2831, which entered into force on 1 December 2024 and must be transposed into national law by December 2026.
However, many translators and interpreters choose to be self-employed. Yet in the absence of a legal definition of self-employment, how can they convincingly demonstrate to a supervisory authority that they are genuinely self-employed? Such an undertaking is impossible if criteria such as having multiple clients, bearing the overall economic risk, or having made a conscious decision to be self-employed are not taken into account, and if the costs of office space, insurance and similar expenses are not treated as indicators of self-employment but merely as consequences of any occupational status.
German law governing the procedure for determining whether an individual really is self-employed is set to be reformed by the end of 2027. But for now, its scope remains unclear. The BDÜ – together with several other associations representing the self-employed in Germany – has been actively engaged in the political process for many years now, calling not only for improvements to the determination procedure itself but, crucially, for the introduction into German legislation of a definition of self-employment. Whether these efforts are successful remains to be seen.
Does your country have a legal definition of self-employment?
At the BDÜ, we plan to highlight good examples of existing regulations from around the world. If you have any information about relevant regulations in your country, please do send us an email with the following information: the country, a short description of the legal provision(s), and a link to the relevant clause(s). We greatly appreciate your support.