18th December, 2000 - Judicial Review - Date Set For Hearing

On 10 October 2000, PCG received permission in the High Court, despite strong representations on behalf of the Inland Revenue, to judicially review IR35. The date for the full three-day hearing has now been set for 13-15 March 2000. This action is funded entirely by PCG members, out of a separate legal fund established for the purpose. We are now re-opening the legal fund and appealing to all those who have not yet contributed to do so.

Funding the Challenge
In March 2000 PCG launched the fighting fund, and received pledges for £500,000 in 3 days. We have since collected just over £600,000 from around 3,000 members.

Unfortunately legal actions are not easily subjected to fixed budgets. The Inland Revenue took the highly unusual step of opposing our permission hearing. This was not expected, and increased our costs by some £200,000. However it also gave us a preview of the IR's case, which has resulted in us commissioning new (and expensive) expert evidence.

The IR has demonstrated its ability to ramp up the costs of this case. Some have suggested this may be a deliberate tactic to "break the bank". Hence we have produced revised budgets including these extra costs and allowing a greater contingency. For obvious reasons we think it best to keep the detailed budget confidential.

We can reveal that we currently have funds to pay for the main hearing in March, and to meet all liabilities if we lose. But to be sure of being able to fund the various stages of appeal, we are re-opening the fund with a new target of £1 Million. We believe this will be enough to fund the case to its conclusion, but we cannot rule out a further appeal at some future date.

New Appeal
Two thirds of PCG members have not yet contributed to the legal fund. Many of those have joined since the original appeal. In the first instance we are inviting those members who have not yet contributed to make a donation. However anyone who has already given but wishes to increase their contribution can do so.

An online facility for contributions by credit card is;

Here

Full JR details are available in the new legal section of the PCG site;

Here

Susie Hughes (Head of Executive Services)

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