6 Charles and Jane Miro, aged 31 and 34 years respectively, have been married for ten years and have two children
aged six and eight years. Charles is a teacher but for the last five years he has stayed at home to look after their
children. Jane works as a translator for Speak Write Ltd.
Speak Write Ltd was formed and began trading on 6 April 2006. It provides translation services to universities. Jane,
who ceased employment with Barnham University to found the company, owns 100% of its ordinary share capital
and is its only employee.
Speak Write Ltd has translated documents for four different universities since it began trading. Its biggest client is
Barnham University which represents 70% of the company’s gross income. It is estimated that the company’s gross
fee income for its first 12 months of trading will be ￡110,000. Speak Write Ltd usually agrees fixed fees in advance
with its clients although it charges for some projects by reference to the number of days taken to do the work. None
of the universities makes any payment to Speak Write Ltd in respect of Jane being on holiday or sick.
All of the universities insist that Jane does the work herself. Jane carries out the work for three of the universities in
her office at home using a computer and specialised software owned by Speak Write Ltd. The work she does for
Barnham University is done in the university’s library on one of its computers as the documents concerned are too
delicate to move.
The first set of accounts for Speak Write Ltd will be drawn up for the year ending 5 April 2007. It is estimated that
the company’s tax adjusted trading profit for this period will be ￡52,500. This figure is after deducting Jane’s salary
of ￡4,000 per month and the related national insurance contributions but before any adjustments required by the
application of the personal service companies (IR 35) legislation. The company has no other sources of income or
capital gains.
Jane has not entered into any communication with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with respect to the company
and wants to know:
– When the corporation tax computation should be submitted and when the tax is due.
– When the corporation tax computation can be regarded as having been agreed by HMRC.
Charles and Jane have requested a meeting to discuss the family’s finances. In particular, they wish to consider the
shortfall in the family’s annual income and any other related issues if Jane were to die. Their mortgage is covered
by a term assurance policy but neither of them have made any pension contributions or carried out any other long
term financial planning.
Jane has estimated that her annual after tax income from Speak Write Ltd, on the assumption that she extracts all of
the company’s profits, will be ￡58,000. Charles owns two investment properties that together generate after tax
income of ￡8,500. He estimates that he could earn ￡28,000 after tax if he were to return to work.
The couple’s annual surplus income, after payment of all household expenditure including mortgage payments of
￡900 per month, is ￡21,000. Charles and Jane have no other sources of income.
Required:
(a) Write a letter to Jane setting out:
(i) the arguments that HMRC could put forward, based only on the facts set out above, in support of
applying the IR 35 legislation to Speak Write Ltd; and
(ii) the additional income tax and national insurance contributions that would be payable, together with
their due date of payment, if HMRC applied the IR 35 legislation to all of the company’s income in
2006/07. (11 marks)