Quarterly review: Autumn 2019

1. Paya Ltd: personal service companies

In Paya Ltd others v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 583 (17 September 2019) the FTT found that arrangements between personal service companies and the BBC had created employment relationships (ITEPA 2003 s 49).

The three appellants were PSCs formed by three news presenters to provide their services to the BBC for a number of years under a series of contracts between each PSC and the BBC. The issue was whether the relationship between the BBC and the presenters would have been one of employment in the absence of the PSCs.

The FTT noted that the exercise involved ‘looking at all factors in the context of the provision of the presenters’ highly skilled journalistic services in a live BBC news broadcasting environment’. Applying the tests set out in Ready Mixed Concrete [1968] 2 QB 497 the tribunal found that an employment relationship would have been created....