Bogus self-employment Germany - DRV criteria explained

If you want to walk through your own status or a specific contract, the calculator is at the top. This page explains what the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV) assesses in the formal Statusfeststellungsverfahren, the eight assessment categories that follow from it, and the BAGSV reform proposal currently on the table.

§1 What does the DRV assess?

The status assessment rests on § 7 SGB IV and the body of BSG case law. § 7 (1) SGB IV explicitly names directive authority (Weisungsgebundenheit) and integration (Eingliederung) as indicators of dependent employment. From BSG case law come three further axes: entrepreneurial risk (Unternehmerrisiko), free time arrangement (freier Zeiteinsatz), and own work tools (eigene Betriebsmittel).

No single criterion decides on its own; the DRV weighs the overall picture.

Key BSG anchors:

• Herrenberg ruling (BSG, 28 June 2022, B 12 R 3/20 R) - established integration into a teaching schedule constitutes dependent employment, even if the contract calls it "freelance". The ruling stresses that the DRV assesses the lived practice, not the formal contract wording.
• Care workers (BSG, 7 June 2019, B 12 R 6/18 R) - care professionals integrated into ward shift schedules and care standards are usually dependently employed.

The line runs through almost every BSG status ruling: lived practice beats contract fiction.

§2 The eight DRV assessment categories

In the DRV's Selbstcheck, the five axes spread across eight assessment categories with a total of 34 questions. Each answer carries a fixed point value; the score is additive.

The compensation and work-execution axes carry the most weight. The calculator surfaces the top 3 negative and top 3 positive levers per answer.

§3 DRV vs BAGSV - deficit vs positive criteria

The DRV uses a deficit model: every answer that suggests integration costs points. Anyone who appears "not self-employed enough" at the end is classed as dependently employed. The model is administratively efficient - but blanks out the bigger picture of entrepreneurial practice.

The BAGSV Positionspapier of 8 October 2024 (24 associations including VGSD, DBITS, AGD, BDÜ, DDIM) proposes a positive model:

12 positive criteria for genuine self-employment, additive only. Unlike the DRV: BAGSV assigns no points and no rating bands; it lists the twelve criteria as equally weighted positive indicators. Two of them - hourly rate (Vorsorgefähigkeit) and actual pension provision - are explicitly named in the paper as the two highest-weighted positive criteria. Criteria 2 through 9 are "pure positive criteria": their absence does not argue against self-employment.

1. Hourly rate clearly higher than for a comparable salaried employee (Vorsorgefähigkeit) - flagship criterion
2. Adequate pension provision in place - flagship criterion; met via any one of four alternative paths: a) Mandatorily insured through the activity (KSK, craftsmen, teachers, arbeitnehmerähnlich) b) Voluntary income-based contributions to the DRV (at least § 165 SGB VI level) c) Side activity (confirmed by statutory health insurer; main job is dependent employment) d) Future Altersvorsorge-Pflicht (AVP) achievable
3. Activity conducted via a corporation (GmbH, UG)
4. Employs staff covered by statutory social insurance
5. Multiple clients / no dependence on a single client
6. Proof of specialist knowledge
7. Membership in a professional association
8. Professional liability or industry-typical insurance
9. Work-for-hire contract / success-based pay
10. Registered with the tax office as self-employed
11. Sworn declaration of self-employed activity
12. Independent health insurance (PKV or voluntary GKV)

Both models have trade-offs - the DRV model is current law and applied by case officers in the formal Statusfeststellungsverfahren; the BAGSV model is a reform proposal addressed to the legislator. The calculator shows both ratings in parallel: at the top the DRV points with the tendency verdict, below BAGSV with the met-count (X of 12) and flagship-pair status.

§4 Statusfeststellungsverfahren walkthrough

The formal procedure with the DRV runs as follows:

1. File the application. The application itself is filed with form V0027 - either party (contractor, hiring company, or both jointly) can file. Form C0031 is the attachment "Beschreibung des Auftragsverhältnisses zum Antrag", describing the specific engagement. The procedure is free of charge.
2. Fact-finding. The DRV examines the engagement, requesting additional documents as needed (contract, time sheets, description of activity).
3. Ruling. The DRV issues a ruling: either "self-employed" (no social-insurance relationship) or "dependent employment" (contributions due retroactively).
4. Objection. Within one month of receipt, an objection can be filed. After that, an action before the Sozialgericht (social court) is possible.

For a ruling of dependent employment, social-insurance contributions are reclaimed up to 4 years retroactively (§ 25 SGB IV); for deliberately withheld contributions up to 30 years. The risk lands primarily on the hiring company, but is in many engagements partly passed back to the contractor via contract clauses.

The DRV's own Selbstcheck (the tool whose algorithm this calculator mirrors) is a free pre-check without legal binding. It returns a tendency across three states (self-employed, dependent employment, unclear), but not the points behind the verdict.

Back to the freelancer status check or onward to the methodology.