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31 October 2019 / Peter Vaines
Issue: 7862 / Categories: Features , Tax , Commercial
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Taxing matters

Getting personal: Peter Vaines reports on IR35 personal service companies
  • Purposive interpretations: the impact of fresh guidance.
  • HMRC enquiries: disclosure information and reasons behind decisions.
  • Sale of goodwill: capital gains tax implications.

It may not have escaped anybody’s attention that HMRC are seeking to crack down on the use of personal service companies and to extend the reach of the well-known IR35 rules. 

HMRC has had mixed success in the courts in seeking to apply these rules against people in the media, particularly TV presenters; the cases of Christa Ackroyd and Lorraine Kelly spring immediately to mind (Christa Ackroyd Media Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners 2019 UKUT 0326; Albatel Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2019] UKFTT 195 (TC)). However, there are many others, such as the more recent decision in Kickabout Productions Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2019] UKFTT 415 (TC), [2019] SWTI 1363 involving a Mr Paul Hawksbee who broadcasted on TalkSport, where the arrangements were found not to be within IR35.

We are now all trying to get to grips with the draft legislation

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After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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