Lorraine Kelly has won an appeal against HMRC over a
£1.2m tax bill, after a judge ruled she was not employed by ITV, but
performs as her "chatty" TV persona.
Kelly received the national insurance and
income tax bill from HMRC in 2016.
HMRC claimed that she was an ITV employee, but she said she was a freelancer.
The judge ruled in Kelly's favour that she was a "self-employed star".
The
BBC reports that the
case centres on a contract that Kelly signed in 2012 - through a
company she runs with her husband - to present Lorraine, as well as her
former show Daybreak which ended in 2014 when Good Morning Britain was
relaunched.
Four years later, she was sent a bill of nearly
£900,000 in income tax and more than £300,000 in national insurance
contributions.
Kelly appealed against tax authority HMRC, and the case was heard by the first-tier tax tribunal.
Judge
Jennifer Dean ruled that the relationship that Kelly had with ITV "
was a
contract for services and not that of employer and employee".
The
tribunal found that Kelly did not receive staff benefits such as
holiday or sick pay and was allowed to carry out other work.
The
judge said that Kelly could be classed as a "theatrical artist", which
would mean any payments to an agent would be allowed as a tax-deductible
expense.
Judge Dean said:
"We did not accept that Ms Kelly simply
appeared as herself - we were satisfied that Ms Kelly presents a
persona of herself, she presents herself as a brand and that is the
brand ITV sought when engaging her.
All parts of the show are a performance, the act being to perform the role of a friendly, chatty and fun personality.
Quite
simply put, the programmes are entertaining, Ms Kelly is entertaining
and the 'DNA' referred to is the personality, performance, the 'Lorraine
Kelly' brand that is brought to the programmes.
We
should make clear we do not doubt that Ms Kelly is an entertaining lady
but the point is that for the time Ms Kelly is contracted to perform
live on air she is public 'Lorraine Kelly'.
She may not like the
guest she interviews, she may not like the food she eats, she may not
like the film she viewed but that is where the performance lies."
A spokesman for HMRC said it was "disappointed" with the ruling.
"We will carefully consider the outcome of the tribunal before deciding whether to appeal."
Hey Hoh, the show must go on!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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