Tax Matters Digest

Our first article offers insights into the Bluecrest Capital Management case which looks at the tax treatment of LLP members. BlueCrest claimed that some of its members should not be taxed as employees and HMRC sought to invoke the ‘Salaried Members’ legislation to claim that they should be. Those rules apply where members meet three conditions. The case revolves around the second of those – Condition B – and whether the member has significant influence over the affairs of the LLP. The case has flip-flopped through the courts and was heard by the Supreme Court in January of this year with a decision expected soon. Our spotlight article reminds readers of the case and highlights some actions and areas that partnerships should be considering whilst waiting for the final outcome.

The second article stays with partnerships and highlights some themes that we are seeing in partnership enquiries ranging from tax administration enquiry management to current technical topics, one of which is the Salaried Member rules mentioned in our spotlight article. We also cover the recent Judicial Review case of Rokos v HMRC.

Our third update looks at Professional Game Match Officials Ltd v HMRC, a case which has been rumbling on for some years and addresses whether football referees are employed or self-employed. Last year, having been satisfied that the first two tests in Ready Mixed Concrete (South East) Ltd (RMC) v Ministers of Pensions and National Insurance were met, the Supreme Court remitted the case to the First-tier Tribunal to determine the final third test set out in the RMC framework. Our article highlights the Tribunal’s thinking and, for what it's worth, will be the only reading I do about football this year.

And finally, we look at the case of Michael Parker v HMRC where the First-tier Tribunal considered when UK days can be disregarded for the purposes of the Statutory Residence Test looking in detail at transit days and exceptional circumstances concerns.

In this edition we also provide a link to our own Tim Sarson’s latest International Tax Review article as published in Tax Journal. This month Tim focuses on how global tax policy in 2026 is being shaped by the ongoing Middle East crisis.

We then provide our usual round up of Other News and perhaps one item to highlight in this edition is the confirmation from HMRC that the Advance Tax Certainty Service (ATCS) will officially launch on 1 July (and HMRC have refreshed the ATCS landing page to celebrate). From the start of June, HMRC will hold expression of interest meetings for prospective users of the service to accelerate delivery of the service post-launch. With a high investment spend criteria of £1 billion, the number of users will likely be small in the first year, but a review will be undertaken after 12 months which may well reduce this. The hope is that over time this service may become an important step towards giving more tax certainty to potential investors in the UK.

Other items covered in Other News in Brief include:

• The publication by the OECD of a Global Minimum Tax Implementation Toolkit and updated FAQs;
• New technical guidance on inheritance tax for pensions;
• Further HMRC guidance on aspects of the new mandatory tax agent registration regime, although much uncertainty remains on the application of the rules (and the regime is expected to start on 18 May);
• Confirmation that the pensions salary sacrifice bill has received Royal Assent; and
• Publication of the synthesised text of the multilateral instrument and double tax conventions between the UK and Pakistan and Indonesia.

We also provide links to our usual Indirect Tax Weekly Talking Points and global Week in Tax publications.