M R Currell Limited is a painting and decorating company set up in the 1980s by Mark Currell, originally as a sole trader. In 2002 Mark incorporated M R Currell, making hm and his wife, Kimberly Currell, company directors.

The appellant went to the Upper Tribunal after losing an appeal at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) in 2023, which ruled that the earnings of M R Currell Ltd were liable for PAYE and national insurance contributions (NICs) relating to a payment of £800,000 made to the trustee of an employee benefit trust (EBT) in November 2010. The trustee then lent the money to Mark Currell, a senior director of the company, and shareholder when the payment was made.

Ben Elliot, the barrister appointed by the appellant, argued that the FTT had erred in ruling that the payment was earnings, or a loan from the appellant to one of its directors. Firstly, he questioned whether the transaction was linked to Mark Currell’s employment, and secondly, if it was ‘a transaction of a type that gives rise to earnings’.

Ell