Farce about face

KEY POINTS

• HMRC seek Class 1 National Insurance contributions from entertainers operating through intermediaries.
• The Social Security Contributions (Intermediaries) Regulations 2000 reflect the IR35 rules.
• The overlap between the intermediaries regulations and the categorisation regulations.
• Does a purposive approach to the legislation mean that HMRC’s approach is correct?

Practitioners who act on behalf of thespians and others in the entertainment business may be interested in a new “play” by HMRC. In their apparently intensifying warfare against the theatrical profession the department is seeking to apply the social security version of the IR35 legislation to intermediaries used by entertainers.

As a short prologue the Social Security Contributions (Intermediaries) Regulations SI 2000/727 (hereafter the “intermediaries regulations”) came into force on 6 April 2000.

In the words of the accompanying explanatory notes they:

“make...