Home-based frontier workers

Since an unspecified pandemic, working from home has been embraced within our society. And while in my personal experience there is nothing more fun than working together in the office, a large part of our population works from home for one or more days. And yes as a working mother, it is sometimes convenient that you can work from home when there is another unexpected study day or your children are sick at times that are never convenient. But as long as you live and work in the same country, there is nothing wrong. Since 1 July this year, social security rules have changed for cross-border workers who work from home for an employer in another country.

Social security frontier workers: the main rule
According to European legislation, an employee is socially insured in his country of residence (country of residence) if he works at least 25% of his working hours in the country of residence. During the corona pandemic, an exception was made to prevent the social security position of frontier workers from changing because they worked from home. That exception will no longer apply from 1 July 2023.

New rules since 1 July 2023
To accommodate cross-border workers and their employers, a framework agreement has been drawn up. This agreement allows cross-border workers to work up to 50% of their working hours from home under certain conditions, without becoming socially insured in the country of residence. This agreement only applies if both the country of residence and the country of work sign the agreement. The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have signed the agreement. The new rules apply since 1 July 2023.

An example: an employee lives in Belgium and works for an employer based in the Netherlands. Previously, the work was carried out entirely in the Netherlands, but now the employee works two out of five days a week from home. The framework agreement can be applied: the employee remains insured in the Netherlands. The employer does not have to start paying contributions for the employee in Belgium.

When does the new rule not apply?
For the framework agreement to apply, a number of conditions must be met. In the following situations, the agreement cannot be applied:

• Working in more than two countries: the framework agreement can only be applied if the employee carries out work in the country of residence and in the country where the employer is established. If the employee from the example performs work in France, the arrangement does not apply.
• Working at foreign branch concern: the framework agreement can only be applied for employees teleworking from home. If the employee from the example regularly works at the Belgian branch of the employer's concern, the conditions are not met.
• Manual work: the framework agreement only applies to employees teleworking from home. Teleworking means work that is location-independent and where there remains a digital connection to the employer's working environment. Manual/manual work (such as assembly and installation work) does not include teleworking.
• Self-employed: The framework agreement only applies to employees and cannot be applied to the self-employed.

If not the conditions for the framework agreement are met, the main rule applies. If working substantially (more than 25%) in the country of residence, the employee will in principle be socially insured in the country of residence.
If well the conditions are met, then an A1 declaration must be applied for in the country where the employer is established to apply the framework agreement. The A1 declaration can be applied for since 1 July 2023.