Christa Ackroyd Media v HMRC

Our pick of this week's cases

In Christa Ackroyd Media v HMRC [2018] UKFTT 69 (10 February 2018) the FTT found that the intermediaries legislation (ITEPA 2003 ss 48 to 61) was engaged and that a BBC presenter should be treated as employed by the BBC even though she provided her services through a personal service company.

Ms Ackroyd was a television journalist who had been engaged in a variety of media roles since the 1970’s. She had worked at the BBC under two fixed term contracts between the BBC and her company CAM. It was accepted that CAM was a ‘personal service company’ and HMRC contended that under the intermediaries legislation Ms Ackroyd’s status was that of an employee so that CAM should account for income tax and NICs. HMRC had issued determinations and imposed penalties on that basis. Ms Ackroyd considered that she was a self-employed...