Arbeitnehmerüberlassung is the German legal term for labour leasing: employing a worker and placing them under a client’s direction. It requires an AÜG licence from the Federal Employment Agency, caps assignments at 18 months with the same client, and mandates equal pay with comparable staff after 9 months. Unlicensed leasing creates a deemed employment relationship with the client plus fines up to €30,000 per case.
Was ist Arbeitnehmerüberlassung in practice? For foreign companies it is usually the question of whether they can place staff or contractors at German clients without a German entity — and the AÜG (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz) answers it strictly. This guide covers the licence, the 18-month and equal-pay rules, why Freiberufler arrangements are under fire, and how a licensed Employer of Record keeps German placements compliant in 2026.
You are performing Arbeitnehmerüberlassung whenever your employee works under the day-to-day direction of another company. The trigger is integration and instruction, not the contract’s title. Any provider leasing staff into Germany — including from abroad — needs an AÜG licence; a service contract (Werkvertrag) label does not protect an arrangement that functions as leasing.
Enforcement runs through the Federal Employment Agency and customs (FKS). Consequences of unlicensed leasing are structural, not just financial: the employment contract with the lender is void and a deemed contract with the client arises — meaning your client suddenly employs your contractor, with back social contributions attached. In the cross-border placements we review, the riskiest pattern is a foreign staffing company ‘sub-contracting’ engineers to German industrial clients under service agreements that inspectors reclassify within one site visit.
Germany’s other compliance front is false self-employment. Freiberufler (liberal-profession freelancers) must register with the tax office (freiberufler anmelden), invoice with their own tax number and handle freiberufler steuern via income-tax prepayments — but registration proves nothing about status. The Deutsche Rentenversicherung tests the working reality in status audits reaching back four years, and the 2026 statutory self-employment reform tightens the criteria around instruction and integration. A single-client freelancer embedded in a German team for two years is a pension-contribution claim waiting to be filed.
An employer of record with its own German entity and AÜG licence employs the worker, runs German payroll (employer on-costs ≈21% covering pension, health, care and unemployment insurance, plus accident insurance), observes the CLA framework and leases the worker to your client lawfully. For companies testing the German market, that replaces GmbH incorporation and licence acquisition — realistically a 4–6 month project — with onboarding in under a week. Access Financial holds its own AÜG licence; request a placement review if you have contractors at German clients today, licensed or not.
Arbeitnehmerüberlassung means labour leasing: a company (the lender) employs a worker and places them under the direction of a client (the hirer). German law regulates it through the AÜG: licence requirement, 18-month assignment cap, equal pay after nine months and written disclosure. If the client directs the daily work, it is leasing — whatever the contract is called.
An AÜG licence is required by any company leasing employees to clients in Germany, including foreign companies leasing across the border. The Federal Employment Agency issues it after checking financial standing, HR processes and premises; first licences are limited to one year and typically take 2–4 months. Operating without one voids contracts and creates deemed employment with the client.
Freiberufler status in Germany depends on the working reality: own clients, own instructions, own business risk. Registration and invoices do not decide it — the Deutsche Rentenversicherung looks at integration, instruction and economic dependence, and can reclassify up to four years retroactively. Single-client freelancers working inside a team structure are the highest-risk group in 2026 audits.
Related reading: AÜG licence in Germany · New self-employment status in Germany · German employment law for global companies · Employer of Record (service page)