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Tool · Contractor Classification

Contractor or employee? The country decides.

Pick a country. Answer 8 to 12 questions about how the work actually gets done. Get a per-engagement risk score, a factor-by-factor narrative, and an indicative back-tax and penalty band calibrated to your rate and duration.

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Pick a country, see your exposure.

Live in 40+ countries · free · 2 minutes

Contractor classification — at a glance

Countries live

40+

Full statutory tests across Europe, the Americas, MENA, and Asia-Pacific. Search the picker for yours.

Backdating window

Up to 4 yrs

Germany's Deutsche Rentenversicherung audits backdate liability up to four years.

Time to a verdict

2 min

8 to 12 plain-English questions, scored against local thresholds with a factor-by-factor narrative.

Field notes

Same engagement, four regimes.

The same contractor, hired the same way, sits in a different statutory test in each market. The factor that flips the verdict changes — but the backdating window doesn’t.

Tap a card to jump into that country’s assessment.

When does using contractors instead of employees become a legal exposure?

When the working relationship (hours, integration into the team, exclusivity, length of engagement, provision of tools) meets the local legal test for employment. Strict jurisdictions like the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain backdate liability for employer contributions, unpaid leave, and severance up to 4 or 5 years. The exposure typically dwarfs the cost of moving the engagement to EOR before the classification is challenged.

What is Contractor misclassification?

The legal reclassification of an independent-contractor engagement as an employment relationship by a tax authority, labour court, or social-security body. Triggers depend on jurisdiction but commonly include: control over working hours and methods, integration into the team, exclusivity (the contractor cannot freely take other clients), provision of tools and equipment by the engager, length and continuity of engagement, and economic dependence. Reclassification creates retroactive employer-side liability for statutory contributions, unpaid statutory leave, severance, and in some jurisdictions criminal penalties.

The posture

Country-level classification posture, 2026.

Verified 2026-05-19

Each jurisdiction’s named statutory test, the body that enforces it, and the direction of travel for 2026. Six enforcement-heavy markets below; the picker above covers the rest.

  • United Kingdom

    IR35 / off-payroll working

    Engager-side responsibility since 2021 — the hiring company, not the contractor, owns the determination.

    Source · HMRC ESM10000 · Off-payroll working manual

  • Germany

    Scheinselbständigkeit

    Deutsche Rentenversicherung audits backdate employer-side contributions up to four years on a finding.

    Source · Deutsche Rentenversicherung · §7 SGB IV

  • France

    Requalification du contrat

    URSSAF and the labour court can reclassify; presumption favours salariat once the indicia tip.

    Source · URSSAF · Code du travail L8221-6

  • Netherlands

    Wet DBA / VBAR

    Handhavingsmoratorium ended 2026 — Belastingdienst enforcement of misclassification resumed.

    Source · Belastingdienst · Wet DBA / VBAR

  • Spain

    Riders Law

    Real Decreto-ley 9/2021 plus Tribunal Supremo rulings extend platform-economy precedent to traditional contractors.

    Source · Real Decreto-ley 9/2021 · Tribunal Supremo

  • Italy

    Co.co.co. / parasubordinato

    Decreto Dignità tightened conversion thresholds; INPS audits the surrounding indicia.

    Source · Decreto Legge 87/2018 · INPS

Field note

“By the time it’s an audit, you’ve already lost the cheap fixes.”
— Teamed jurisdiction operations

Already know the engagement is at risk?

Skip the assessment and talk to a Teamed jurisdiction specialist. Tell us the country, the engagement pattern (hours, length, exclusivity), and the number of contractors. We’ll return a per-engagement classification view within 48 hours with the EOR fallback cost modelled at the Teamed EOR rate.

Talk to a specialist

Frequently asked questions

  • Why is this different from other classification tools?
    Most classification tools stop at a traffic light. We don't. Every country uses its own statutory test (IR35 in the UK, the URSSAF tests in France, VBAR in the Netherlands), and we translate each one into plain questions, then score your engagement factor by factor. The financial range is calibrated to the rate and duration you enter, mapped against the penalty parameters in each market's rules. It isn't a generic 'high risk' stamp, it's an indicative back-tax and penalty band for your engagement.
  • How does the tool work?
    We translate each country's statutory test into plain questions, score the factors against local thresholds, apply modifiers from your engagement pattern (rate, duration, clients, entity), and map an indicative back-tax and penalty range from the rules we encode. You get a narrative per factor, not a single opaque number.
  • Which countries does the tool cover?
    Full assessments with local statutory questions, penalty parameters, and context are live for 40+ countries across Europe, the Americas, MENA, and Asia-Pacific. Use the picker to search by country — if yours is not in the list we will add it on request.
  • Is this tool free?
    Yes. The full assessment, including the results view, is free. You enter a work email to see the full report and download the PDF. We do not sell your data or spam you.
  • How accurate is the financial exposure estimate?
    It is built from published rules and typical enforcement parameters. It is a range for discussion with your advisers, not a promise of what a tax authority will demand. Facts and timing always drive outcomes.
  • Does completing this assessment mean we are compliant?
    No. This is an informed risk screen, not a legal determination. A low score means the answers you gave point toward genuine contractor status. It does not replace documentation or professional advice.
  • What happens after I submit my email?
    You see the full report immediately and can download the PDF. If your risk is high, someone from our side may follow up. There is no cold outreach list sell.
  • Can we save and share the results?
    Yes. The PDF is meant to go to your legal team or finance lead. It includes the factor breakdown, any exposure band, and suggested next steps.