Penalty Saved or Penalty Paid? Gary Lineker’s match with HMRC on IR 35 comes to an end.
Gary Lineker’s 90 minutes with HMRC and the courts are up, after the Match of the Day star and the tax man entered into a confidential settlement. HMRC had appealed a finding in the First Tier Tribunal in favour of Mr Lineker.
With a confidential settlement, it was unclear if Lineker was offside when it came to his tax treatment of earnings from work with the BBC and BT Sports between 2013 and 2016.
Lineker’s case was different from most celebrity IR 35 cases, as rather than using a personal service company (PSC), Lineker operated through a general partnership with his ex-wife.
For the intermediaries legislation, a contract for services from the worker must be entered into by the intermediary – usually a PSC. However, as Lineker operated via a partnership, and he personally entered into contracts with the BBC and BT Sports, the FTT held that the intermediaries legislation could not apply – he had contracted directly with these companies.
The Tribunal held that if Mr Lineker’s ex-wife had been the one to sign the contracts then the intermediaries legislation could have applied.
HMRC had appealed to the Upper Tribunal, but now the case has been settled it is unclear if HMRC or Mr Lineker took 3 points from the encounter.
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