IR35 Appeal

THE LATEST APPEAL relating to the IR35 service company rules of sections 48 to 61 Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 to come before the Special Commissioner (Ansell Computer Services Limited v Richardson (HMIT) SpC 3061/03) has been decided in favour of the contractor. Mr Ansell was a specialist defence industry software contractor operating through his personal service company via an agency. The end users were Marconi and British Aerospace. Following a long dispute with the Revenue's Luton tax office appeals were laid down at the Special Commissioners. The Inland Revenue was represented by Mr Gleig of the Regional Appeals Unit; the taxpayer by Accountax and the Special Commissioner was Graham Aaronson QC.

Witnesses were examined and cross examined on 23 March 2004 and legal submissions followed after an Easter adjournment on 16 April.

The facts

Although Mr Ansell worked on specific defence projects...