IR35 does not apply to presenter’s personal service company

Atholl House Productions Ltd was the personal service company of Kaye Adams who performs for the BBC and other media organisations. She also appeared on ITV’s Loose Women Sky and wrote columns for several national newspapers. She carried out corporate events such as hosting awards evenings and giving presentations.

HMRC claimed that for 2015-16 and 2016-17 she was an employee of the BBC because she had a daily morning programme on BBC Radio Scotland.

The taxpayer appealed.

The First-tier Tribunal said the starting point was whether had Adam’s services to the BBC been supplied under a contract directly between her and the corporation she would have been regarded as an employee of the BBC.

For this it was necessary to consider the obligations of the parties and whether the written contract matched what happened in practice with regard to her ability to provide a substitute mutuality of obligation...