This week saw the conclusion of arguments put forward in Eamonn Holmes' Upper Tribunal appeal over his deemed employment status for HMRC's IR35 "off payroll working rules".

Back in 2020 Holmes was determined to be a deemed employee with regards to the contract between his personal service company Red, White and Green Limited and ITV, by the First Tier Tribunal.

Since that decision a steady stream of other TV presenters and celebrities targeted by HMRC have reached an array of different tribunal decisions, with very similar sets of facts often reaching different outcomes. 

Holmes will be hopeful that the Upper Tribunal's interpretation of the off payroll working rules, which were to be scrapped by then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, an announcement which was overturned by his successor Jeremy Hunt, is one that is favourable to him with around £250,000 of income tax and national insurance due (alongside penalties and interest) if he is held to be an employee.

IR35 continues to be one of the more complex and uncertain areas of taxation for contractors working for end clients through personal service companies, with constantly evolving case law on the key areas of control, substitutability and mutuality of obligation.