IR35: Off-Payroll Rules for BBC Next?

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Treasury Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander, revealed that he is furious at the BBC's failure to follow the example of Whitehall in imposing IR35 self-policing for those engaged via a personal service company (PSC).

The Government will order the BBC to stop its celebrities and executives from entering into what it perceives as tax avoidance. Mr Alexander has already written to the corporation's Director General, George Entwistle, demanding action. He told The Mail, “The only part of the public sector that did not follow our example was the BBC…..I will be writing to the new Director General saying BBC employees must be paid openly and transparently.”

The Beeb has already confessed to paying around 3,000 actors, editors, make-up artists and other 'craft staff' through PSC's, with 36 of those earning in excess of £100,000.

Danny Alexander also informed The Mail that the Coalition is to introduce measures to “sniff out wealthy tax cheats”.

HMRC's Affluence Unit, established to tackle tax avoidance by people holding assets worth in excess of £2.5 million, will be boosted by an additional 100 officials increasing its manpower to 300. The scope of the unit's remit will also be widened to include people with assets exceeding £1 million in value, which is likely to capture an additional 500,000 individuals.

According to The Mail, a HMRC source said it would 'target affluent individuals owning offshore property, develop a serial avoiders unit to tackle avoidance and undertake a range of interventions to change the long term behaviour of those using avoidance products'.

Alexander denied that these anti-affluence measures were a demonstration that Lib Dems despised hard working people who made money and had become successful but rather that such people had to make a greater contribution to ridding the UK of its debts. He told The Mail, “The wealthiest did best in the boom years and it is right they should pay more now”.

Wealthy professional footballers and managers are also to come under the microscope of HMRC. Experts will flag up warning signs and contact that player and “have a conversation” if their tax affairs are not in order. Those that transgress can expect fines of up to £100,000, in keeping with similar penalties that have recently occurred within the profession.

Last Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, appeared on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show and told its host that he would not agree to further spending cuts unless a compromise on some form of tax on the rich was reached with the Conservatives. He admitted that he had failed, thus far, to persuade David Cameron or George Osborne of the viability of a proposed mansion tax that would impose a 1% levy on properties exceeding a threshold of £2 million.

Unsurprisingly, Danny Alexander is a supporter of Clegg's firm belief in a mansion tax, arguing that it would be difficult to avoid and stating in The Mail, “You cannot dodge it – a home is not something that you can shuffle off to Monaco”.