Another IR35 lawsuit: this time HMRC loses!

A judgment providing another IR35 victory for the taxpayer has just emerged, although the case was heard at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) over 18 months ago. The case concerns Armitage Technical Design Services Ltd (ATDSL), the personal service company of Mr Armitage. John Hill represented Armitage at the hearing and both he and Armitage are happy for this case to be reported.

The case took around four years to reach the tribunal. Although the taxpayer and his advisers were convinced that the contracts were not within IR35, they didn’t want the case to drag on, so they offered to settle the tax and NIC due for the two in date years with no penalty. But HMRC refused as it wanted a penalty for negligent conduct on the basis that the taxpayer had not discussed IR35 in sufficient detail with his accountant before the P35s were submitted.

Armitage is an electrical control and instrumentation designer who has worked in the nuclear industry for decades. He contracted through ATDSL and two different employment agencies to provide his services to Diamond Light Source Ltd (DLS).

HMRC asserted that the work Armitage performed over the four years 2009/10 to 2013/14 fell within IR35. During this period Armitage completed several separate projects for DLS and also worked for other customers. The judge examined various indications of employment and self-employment set down in case law and highlighted the following points:

Substitution

DLS would accept a reasonably qualified substitute in the place of Armitage, but this was never tested in practice. The tribunal was satisfied that there was not an absolute requirement for Armitage to personally perform the tasks.

HMRC wins first IR35 case since 2011

Former BBC presenter Christa Ackroyd lost her appeal against the tax authority when the FTT ruled that her personal service company, Christa Ackroyd Media Ltd, owed income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) amounting to £420,000 for the tax years 2006/07 to 2012/13. This judgment is the first of a number of IR35 appeals involving television presenters who operated through personal service companies, following the mass IR35 clampdown in October 2016, with further rulings likely to arrive later this year. It is also the first IR35 case to be reported in seven years, and the first comprehensively won by HMRC since 2009.

Ackroyd co-presented the BBC's Look North programme and was engaged through her company, Christa Ackroyd Media Ltd, by the BBC on a seven-year contract to provide her services up to 225 days per year. It was reported in 2013 that after a three-month period spent off air, Ackroyd had been sacked by the corporation following an alleged dispute surrounding her freelance status and payment of tax. Court documents showed that the BBC terminated the arrangement following HMRC’s formal demand against Ackroyd’s company for unpaid tax, despite the insistence by the BBC that she offer her services through a limited company.

Ackroyd contended that her status for the purposes of the IR35 legislation was that of a self-employed contractor, and there was no further tax liability on the part of CAM Ltd. HMRC argued that hypothetically she was engaged under a contract of service rather than a contract for services, therefore she should be treated as an employee of the BBC. The IR35 rules were thus in point, and her company was required to pay the appropriate amount of tax and NICs based on here deemed employment. The FTT sided with HMRC, deciding that Ackroyd could not fairly be described as being in business on her own account. The ruling stated that she was “economically dependent on the hypothetical contract with the BBC”, which took up most if not all of her working time.

10 Reasons why it's still worth going Limited

With the recent increase in dividend taxation, many of our clients are asking whether it still makes sense to incorporate when you are a Sole Trader. It's a tough question to answer as indeed, the tax benefits of running a business as a Limited Company have now been seriously curtailed. If you extract all of the profits from your company as they arise, the total tax and national insurance (NI) paid is now almost identical whether your are operating as a Limited Company or a Sole Trader.

There are still a number of benefits however to operate as a Limited Company. Here they are:

1. Better legal protection

As the name suggests, if you run a Limited Company, you are protected in case things go wrong. Assuming no fraud has taken place, you will not be personally liable for any financial losses made by your Limited Company. Those running a business as self employed do not enjoy such protection from financial claims if things go wrong with their business. While it's possible (and recommended) to subscribe to a professional liability insurance, there is always a risk of running foul of the fine print...

2. More professional image or status

In some industries, having a Limited Company can provide a more professional image. If you are doing business with larger companies, you may find that they prefer to deal only with Limited Companies rather than Sole Traders or even partnerships. Indeed by being transparent, adhering to regulatory requirements and opening up company accounts to public scrutiny, you are demonstrating that the business is being correctly managed and this inspires confidence.

3. Wider availability of some contracts

The reason bigger corporations do not hire Sole Traders is not just image or professionalism but IR35 risk. The IR35 regulation was put in place to prevent employees to set up shop as free-lancers just to save tax. In other words if HMRC decides that a free-lancer behaves as an employee, then he is required to pay the same amount of tax and NI as an employee would. He he does not, whoever hired him is responsible for the back tax and NI, unless he operates as limited company (and in which case that limited company is responsible). It's easy to understand then why some organisations will only deal with limited companies!

4. Name protection

Once you register your company with Companies House, your company name is protected by law. No-one else can use the same name as you, or anything deemed to be too similar. As a Sole Trader, you can use a trading name but it's not protected and there is nothing to prevent a competitor to start using the same trading name as you. While it's possible to protect a trading name with a trademark, it will be in practice a lot more expensive than just creating a company with that name.

HMRC finds it hard to police IR35 Compliance

Despite a six-fold increase in IR35 investigations during the first half of this tax year, HM Revenue and Customs has failed to turn up any compliance failures by contractors, according to data obtained by tax and accounting group Bloomsbury Professional. HMRC ramped up its investigation into "disguised employment" after it was alleged that a number of senior public sector figures had illegitimately received income through personal services companies to avoid liability to personal income taxes and national insurance contributions.

During the first six months of the tax year, 193 new investigations were launched but these have yet to yield a single penny for the tax man. This is despite a massive hike in enforcement activity, up from 59 investigations for the full tax year 2011/12. Martin Casimir, Managing Director at Bloomsbury Professional, commented: “HMRC has been stung into action by a handful of very high profile cases where individuals and employers may not be IR35 compliant. Ordinary contractors and freelancers are now dealing with the fallout.”

What is the settlements legislation?

Sharing dividend income from a limited company with a non-fee-earner has been a classic tax avoidance tactic employed by consultants, contractors and locum doctors who operate through limited companies. It is useful as it allows the use a non-fee-earner’s tax allowances and progressive taxation rates in order to save significant tax.

However, unless the non-fee-earner is a spouse or civil partner qualifying for a spousal exemption, HMRC could treat all the company’s fee income as that earned by the contractor, and tax them accordingly. The settlements legislation will apply if a contractor gives shares in their contractor limited company to a partner, family member or friend who does not work in the business yet receives an income.

HMRC publishes new IR35 test

HMRC has begun the process of overhauling its operation of the IR35 regime for personal services companies with new guidance that sets out some basic risk factors that will affect a contractor’s chances of being investigated. This overhaul will mean an increase in the number of IR35 investigations, the tax department confirmed.

The new guidance includes 12 business entity tests, each one receiving a different score, and they are designed to build up a picture of how a contractor’s business works and how they provide their services. These tests and their individual scores are:

1. Business premises test - Does the business own or rent business premises separately from the contractor’s home or end client’s premises? (10 points if yes)
2. PII test - Does the contractor need professional indemnity insurance? (2 points if yes)
3. Efficiency test - Has the business had the opportunity in the past two years to increase its revenue by working more efficiently? (10 points if yes)
4. Assistance test - Does the business employ any workers who bring in at least 25% of the yearly turnover? (35 points if yes)

Top tax saving tips for the self-employed

The most frequent question I get when I meet clients starting their new business is how to reduce their taxes. Obviously this is a loaded question and most of the work we do is geared towards insuring that our clients pay their fair share but not more! There are hundreds of ways you can reduce your tax liability but if you can do just 5 things, here they are:

1. Incorporate

When you start your own business, you have basically 2 options: run your business as a sole trader (or a partnership) or setup a limited company. The sole trader option can seem quite attractive since it's quite simple to administer. However, using a limited company can bring significant tax savings since companies are not subject to National Insurance. As a matter of fact, for a company with annual profits of £80,000 the overall tax savings can be as much as £5,000 per year.

Is IR35 regulation worth the hassle?

The tax yield generated through reviews using the UK's controversial intermediaries legislation amounted to around GBP200,000 last year, HM Revenue and Customs has said, figures a leading freelance body says demonstrates that the difficulties caused by the system are 'completely unnecessary'. The legislation, generally referred to as IR35, was introduced in April, 2000, and was designed to combat the avoidance of tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) through the use of intermediaries in circumstances where an individual would otherwise, for tax purposes, be regarded as an employee of the client.

In a report published earlier in the year, the Office for Tax Simplification suggested that reforms, including the merger of the income tax and NIC systems and a reduction in the differential rates applicable to different incomes and legal forms, could remove much of the pressure on the employment and self-employment boundary and should result in the IR35 legislation becoming obsolete.

What is IR35?

The IR35 legislation was introduced by HMRC in April 2000 and is intended to combat tax avoidance. Any contractor that is deemed to be employed (rather than self-employed) is said to fall under IR35. In that case the contractor is required to extract all the money out of his limited company as salary (instead of dividends) and to pay both the employee and employer Class 1 National Insurance (23.8% of gross salary, to increase to 25.8% next year). Moreover, since April 2007, after the introduction of the Managed Service Company (MSC) legislation, contractors can only receive dividends if they operate their own personal Limited Company. If they receive payment through an intermediary then they can only receive payment via PAYE, which means paying income tax and both employee’s and employer’s national insurance, even if they fall outside of IR35.

It's easy to understand why a number of contractors want to ensure that they do not fall inside of IR35. HMRC has put together a number of simple questions that one can answer which will help determine the IR35 status. If you answer "yes" to the following then it is likely you will be deemed a "disguised employee" and will therefore fall inside IR35:

• Do you have to do the work yourself?
• Can someone tell you at any time what to do, where to carry out the work or when and how to do it?
• Will you work a set amount of hours?
• Can someone move you from task to task?
• Are you paid by the hour, week or month?
• Will you receive overtime pay or bonus payment?