Abstract

This case originated in an assessment by the Revenue Commissioners that pizza delivery drivers who had worked for the taxpayer company in 2010 and 2011 were ‘employees’ and, as such, were taxable under Schedule E to the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. A Tax Appeals Commissioner (TAC) upheld this assessment, whose decision, in turn, was upheld by the High Court (HC). The HC distilled the questions raised by the TAC’s decision to four core issues: mutuality of obligation, substitution, integration and the written terms of the contract (and the weight that it should be given). The HC found no error of law by the TAC and dismissed the appeal, which decision was then appealed to the Court of Appeal (CA). The CA, sitting in a panel of three with one judge dissenting, found that the drivers were in fact and in law engaged by the company on contracts for services and were thus independent contractors, not employees.