HMRC has confirmed it will not appeal the tribunal decision that football referees engaged by Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) are self-employed rather than employees, drawing a line under one of the longest-running employment status disputes the tax authority has pursued.
In a statement given to IR35 Shield, an HMRC spokesperson said: “The tribunal decided that these referees were not employees based on the specific facts of the case, and we won’t be appealing this decision. Taking the case to the Supreme Court was important because it clarified how to distinguish employees and self-employed workers for tax purposes, and confirmed our longstanding approach.”
The concession brings to a close a saga that has run for the best part of a decade and travelled all the way to the country’s highest court. The Supreme Court handed down its judgment in September 2024, ruling that the tests of mutuality of obligation and control were both met, before sending the matter back to the First-tier Tribunal to weigh the relationship in the round. When the tribunal applied that final stage, it found the referees did not bear the hallmarks of employment after all.
For Dave Chaplin, chief executive of IR35 Shield and a regular presence at the PGMOL hearings, HMRC’s framing of the outcome sits awkwardly with the result.
“HMRC continues to maintain that its longstanding approach to employment status is correct, which begs the question why they got the referees case wrong for 10 years,” Chaplin said.
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