Angels Dancing On A Pinhead

The Inland Revenue has put on its website a whole new section paragraphs ESM7005 to 7230 of the Employment Status Manual. These paragraphs contain commentary on the current leading cases which is highly relevant in the context of IR35 and the fact that the Revenue has announced that it is reviewing its instructions in the light of the comments made by Mr Justice Burton in the Professional Contractors Group case.

Biased view

However one has to remember the purpose of the Revenue manuals viz. to provide guidance for Inspectors of Taxes; and the commentary does tend to give an account of the case law which implies that there is something wrong with decisions that have not gone the Revenue's way.

For instance in the comments on Hall v Lorimer the Revenue is at pains to quote Mr Justice Mummery in the...