This week's opinion: 12 August 2021

What should we make of the disclosure that two government departments (the Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office) between them had to pay more than £100m to HMRC in back taxes arising from incorrect application of the off-payroll rules? In a future edition we will be publishing an article on the implications of this case for IR35 compliance and the check employment status for tax tool. Here I want to reflect on what many people have seen as the absurdity of one government department having to make a tax settlement with HMRC another part of government. Isn’t this just an accounting exercise with no real meaning?

Such concerns are not new. Readers with access to a full set of tax cases might want to look at CIR v National Coal Board (37 TC 264) where a dispute on a highly obscure point of law...