Radio presenter loses IR35 case
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a sports radio presenter’s argument that IR35 didn’t apply to his engagements with TalkSPORT. What’s the full story?
The presenter engaged with TalkSPORT via a limited company. HMRC raised assessments totally £143,000 for income tax and NI, on the basis that the was caught by IR35. The First Tier Tribunal sided with the presenter, but this was overturned at the Upper Tribunal, and now the Court of Appeal has also dismissed his appeal.
The Court found that there was mutuality of obligation because Kickabout Productions Limited required TalkSPORT to offer the presenter airtime for at least 222 days per year. The contract also gave TalkSPORT the right to suspend the presenter, which is consistent with a contract of employment. The Court also confirmed that an absence of workers’ rights in the contract did not carry much weight in determining the employment status because, if there was an employment relationship, he would enjoy the rights conferred by law on employees.
This case again shows us the importance of analysing the details of each specific case before assuming the employment status of a particular engagement.
Related Topics
-
Timetable for agent multi-factor authentication rollout published
HMRC has published further details of its plans to introduce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for tax agents. The rollout is intended to strengthen security across HMRC's online services and will be introduced in stages over the coming months. What do you need to know?
-
Using the EIS to unwind capital gains tax
You inherited shares from your father last year and sold them several months later making a tidy capital gain. You’ve read that the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) can defer the resulting tax bill, but how might it reduce it?
-
Electronic VAT return and payment due
This website uses both its own and third-party cookies to analyze our services and navigation on our website in order to improve its contents (analytical purposes: measure visits and sources of web traffic). The legal basis is the consent of the user, except in the case of basic cookies, which are essential to navigate this website.