After losing the IR35 argument over Gary Lineker’s employment status, HMRC plans to appeal the decision made by the First Tier Tax Tribunal. Riocard Hoye, Senior Manager within the the Tax Disputes & Resolutions team, shares his outcome predictions within Accountancy Daily.

The First Tier Tribunal ruled in favour of Lineker earlier this year, after he appealed a tax demand from HMRC for unpaid tax of £4.9m related to earnings between 2013 and 2018 for TV presenter work for the BBC and BT Sport.  Unlike most IR35 cases, HMRC pursued their claim that the ‘intermediaries legislation’, often referred to as IR35 legislation, applied to the partnership which was in place between Lineker and his ex-wife, Danielle Bux.

HMRC now plans to appeal the First Tier Tax Tribunal’s decision. Riocard states that “the case against Gary Lineker has proven to be a costly dispute for HMRC; not least because the loss of such a high profile and high value case will have set a precedent in the use of partnerships to circumvent IR35 legislation. The tax body has lost a number of significant cases in recent years, and will be keen to reverse this decision to prevent people following suit.”

Read Riocard’ s comments in full in Accountancy Daily’s latest article.