Serpol Limited v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

Facts

The appellant, Serpol Limited, was set up by David Tomlinson, a Detective Chief Superintendent who retired from the Bedfordshire Police in May 2002, together with his friend Peter Platt, after Mr Tomlinson was asked to continue providing his services to a force short of experienced officers. The company supplied the services of associates — largely retired police officers — to Bedfordshire Police and to other clients including the British Transport Police, Hertfordshire Police, the Serious Crime Squad and private companies. The associates worked as investigating officers taking witness statements, as disclosure officers, indexers and exhibit officers on the national computer system, as scenes of crime officers, and as project managers, and were treated by the appellant as self-employed. In 2005 HMRC opened enquiries into their status, and on 5 November 2008 issued a decision under Section 8 of the Social Security Contributions (Transfer of Functions etc) Act 1999 and determinations under Regulation 80 of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 for the six tax years ending 5 April 2008, on the footing that the workers fell within the agency legislation. The notice of the Section 8 Decision was addressed to the appellant's accountants, did not name the appellant and gave no dates. Requests for a review were refused and the appellant appealed to the Tribunal.