After his name appeared in the Panama papers in 2017 another or possibly the same issue for the resident BBC Woke mouthpiece.

[Link]

I have no idea about the legalities of him using IR35 a court will decide that but morally it is plan wrong. His status at the BBC is self employed hence IR35.

A plumber is self employed going from one job to the next Mr Linker has been employed by the BBC since 1999 I think most of us would term that as employee.

Now if Mr Lineker is hired for a one off job such as a TV advert I think you can call that self employed so part of his earning could be IR35.

HMRC needs to get to grips with IR35 there is widespread abuse in the entertainment world and the business world. It's not just the staff employers are also forcing people into that as it saves them employer NI contributions.

HMRC needs to define by sector who qualifies as self employed. As for Gary perhaps we could start a funding page to hep him out I mean it's not like he's spent his career sucking on the taxpayer's teat.

One more point

The criteria are relatively clear and have not changed in decades despite the rhetoric

I have won significant cases of this type against HMRC and also the Spanish tax authorities. They struggle to understand their own rules

On the other hand, as an outsider it doesn’t look like lineker is clearly outside IR35. Time to get the popcorn out.

In the US the IRS got Congress to pass a law that any tax avoidance scheme has to be approved by them. So if a clever accountant comes up with a wheeze he has to get it approved by the IRS.

We need something similar over here. The default should be if in doubt check before you proceed and get HMRC approval. It would save a lot of pain for the taxpayer and also the person involved would know that what they are doing is legal.

Obviously this type of thing would impact impact a minority of people as the rules for the rest of us are pretty clear.

One more point

The IRS is worse by far than HMRC. And in the US you also have State and City taxes. Crossing State boundaries is a nightmare.

The problem largely is that HMRC hires low capability people and those that are able tend to jump sides and work in tax planning.

For example, only two people in HMRC understand how it works if you do some work in Jersey and some on the mainland. And one of those is on long-term sick leave with stress.

Edited by Mapletree (07 May 2021 9.54am)

Yup I get that because if you are any good you work on the other side. That's why I made my suggestion accountants will always push the envelope but if they are required to get approval both they and their clients will know what they are getting into and HMRC has to decide if it wants to fight a scheme or not.

The other thing to do is to simplify the tax system the more complicated it is the more it favours the tax dodgers. Dumb it down so you don't need rocket scientists at HMRC just good people.

One more point

We operate on common law not a Napoleonic system. You can’t legislate for every twist and turn.