Football Referees Are Self-Employed

Many people are looking forward to football resuming, albeit behind closed doors.

There has been an interesting tax case recently concerning the employment status of some football referees. The Upper Tier Tribunal rejected an appeal by HMRC concerning whether referees officiating at matches in the Championship and lower leagues were employees of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

Whilst referees in charge of Premier League matches are employees of PGMOL those refereeing other matches have always been treated as self-employed. PGMOL argued that, unlike in the Premier League, those who officiate in lower division matches are not directly employed. This is because they have other day jobs and can turn down requests to take charge of matches due to other commitments.

A crucial determinant in deciding the case was the degree of control over the referees and whether there was “mutuality of obligations” (MOO) between the parties. This means that the employer is obliged to provide work and the employee is obliged to perform the work provided. The Upper Tier Tribunal decided that no such obligations were present and therefore overturned HMRC’s appeal. As a result the referees did not need to pay income tax and national insurance totalling £584,000.

MOO is a key factor in determining employment status. At the moment it is considered that insufficient weighting is placed on this factor when using HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) software which is a cornerstone of the “off-payroll” working rules now scheduled to be rolled out to the private sector from 6 April 2021.