WHOA bill: opportunity or threat?

Contract Law, Corporate Law

27 May 2020

WHOA bill: opportunity or threat?

Stelt u zich eens voor: u werkt al jaren met dezelfde zelfstandige. Hij stuurt facturen, factureert btw en heeft een eigen kvk-nummer. Toch krijgt u in 2026 ineens vragen van de Belastingdienst over de aard van uw samenwerking. Hoe heeft het zo ver kunnen komen?

The Act on the Confirmation of Extrajudicial Restructuring Plans (Wet Homologatie Onderhands Akkoord, hereinafter WHOA) has been in the works for years. Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker submitted this bill to the House of Representatives in the middle of last year. On 26 May 2020, the act was adopted unanimously by the House of Representatives. But what opportunities and/or threats lie hidden in the WHOA?

WHOA
In short, this act means that all creditors are required to cooperate with an out-of-court agreement to write off (part of) a debt. A kind of compulsory agreement, which must be found reasonable by a judge. It gives struggling companies the opportunity to restructure without bankruptcy or suspension of payment, and to make a fresh start. This is also known as the so-called pre-pack method.

Suspension of payment
Here, there is a postponement of payment, whereby the business continues to operate but the creditors cannot claim their debt for a certain period. As a result, the struggling company gets the opportunity to restructure the business. However, if the company turns out not to be viable and/or cannot offer creditors a satisfactory arrangement, the administrator is required to still file for bankruptcy. In a situation of suspension of payment, it is necessary for all creditors to agree to writing off part of the debt. If not all creditors cooperate with this, bankruptcy still follows.

Out-of-court compulsory agreement
An intermediate solution is that, in a suspension-of-payment situation, an out-of-court agreement is drawn up. Not all creditors need to take part in this. If 50% of the creditors (who moreover account for 50% of the outstanding debt amount) agree, the judge will approve such an agreement. In that case, the other 50% of creditors will also be bound by it. This is called confirmation (homologation) of the agreement. The WHOA act speeds up this process, since under this act all creditors are immediately required to cooperate with (partially) writing off the debt.

Is the WHOA an opportunity or a threat?
For companies in dire straits, the question is to what extent this new act will offer opportunities to restructure via the WHOA, in order to then make a fresh start afterwards. This depends heavily on the sector in which the company operates. Companies in sectors that are very labour-intensive, i.e. where most of the costs lie in personnel, will actually be worse off under this act. To prevent abuse via the WHOA, it has been explicitly determined that the WHOA does not apply to employment contracts. Personnel cannot therefore be trimmed away using this act. It is not uncommon for personnel costs specifically to be the reason things go wrong, and it is precisely those costs that then need to be reduced. This will be made more difficult by this act, because it significantly strengthens the rights of employees compared to employees who are part of a bankruptcy.

The idea that more companies will venture a fresh start because of the WHOA seems more of a political wish than reality. The strong rights of employees are the main cause of this. Because of these rights, fresh-start situations will be kept to a minimum. Ultimately, this could result in even more employees ending up out of work. Moreover, the healthy parts of the business would then disappear too.

Opportunity/threat: debtor makes use of the WHOA
The danger also lies in the fact that debtors may see the WHOA as an opportunity to undo part of the claim. However, as a rule the contractual relationship will then still continue to exist, and thereby employment is also partly preserved. In the event of the client’s bankruptcy, of course, nothing at all can be recovered. In that respect, the WHOA can indeed offer opportunities.

In short, the WHOA is only an enrichment if the debt burden is mainly caused by items other than personnel and revenue remains stable. In the event of a decline in revenue due to corona, there is structurally less work, and the workforce should then also have to shrink accordingly. Applying for NOW in combination with a reorganisation is then more obvious (if there is still time for that).

As an entrepreneur, do you need individual legal advice or support regarding restructuring, the WHOA or a fresh start? Then it is advisable to contact a lawyer. The Legal Company can of course help you with this. Get in touch with us via: info@thelegalcompany.nl or call 020-3450152.

This article was written in collaboration with Henk Cornelisse of Clean Totaal, a knowledge platform for professional cleaning. See this blog for the article written specifically for the cleaning industry.

Nothing changes as often as laws and regulations. We would like to point out that our blogs may no longer be in line with current laws and regulations and may therefore be outdated. If you have questions or a problem relating to this blog, or if you require legal assistance, please contact us.

De afgelopen jaren stonden in het teken van de Wet VBAR, het wetsvoorstel dat een einde moest maken aan onduidelijkheid over de zzp’er. Het kabinet heeft delen van dat voorstel inmiddels geschrapt. Op het eerste gezicht is dat goed nieuws: minder regels, minder administratieve last. Maar in de praktijk blijven dezelfde toetsen overeind.

“De inhoud van de samenwerking is leidend, niet wat er op papier staat.”

De Belastingdienst handhaaft sinds 1 januari 2025 weer actief op schijnzelfstandigheid. En recente uitspraken van de Hoge Raad bevestigen dat rechters strikt toetsen of er sprake is van ondergeschiktheid en gezagsverhouding.

Voor uw praktijk betekent dit drie dingen. Een: leg de samenwerking duidelijk vast, met aandacht voor de inhoud. Twee: voorkom dat een zzp’er feitelijk werkt als werknemer. Drie: wees voorbereid op een controle, en weet hoe u de relatie kunt herzien als dat moet.

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