Revenue set to probe how RTÉ stars are paid

RTÉ’s top-earning presenters could be subject to a tax probe after a BBC presenter was handed a £400,000 tax bill.

Eight out of 10 of the biggest earners at the State-funded broadcaster are paid as contractors through companies – and a Revenue source said this system is ‘about to come under close scrutiny’.

It comes as BBC presenter Christa Ackroyd, who was paid through a company, was found by a UK tribunal to have been a BBC employee and therefore liable for more than £400,000 in unpaid income tax.

The tribunal ruled that she could ‘not fairly be described as being in business on her own account and clearly worked for the BBC’.

Now a Revenue source has said this is an area which will be examined in a bid to clamp down on the ‘bogus selfemployed’.

‘If someone is identified with an organisation and they take instruction from that organisation, then they work for that organisation, they are an employee,’ the source said. ‘Setting up companies for the purposes of being paid is something the Revenue frowns upon.’

The Revenue investigation will not be confined to RTÉ as it will also scrutinise media stars in the private sector who are paid through a company.

RTÉ Stars Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy, Miriam O’Callaghan, Nicky Byrne, Ray D’Arcy, Claire Byrne, Marian Finucane and Darragh Maloney are all paid through private firms as they have contracts rather than staff jobs.

RTÉ this week defended its position. A spokeswoman said: ‘RTÉ’s workforce is made up primarily of staff engaged through employment contracts. In order to carry out its obligations as a public service media, RTÉ enters into a variety of contractual arrangements for the provision of goods and services with service providers, including sole traders, independent contractors, actors, contributors and musicians.’

A Revenue spokeswoman told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The tax obligations of those operating in the media are no different from the tax obligations of those operating in any other sector of the economy.’

‘In 2016, the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Finance initiated a consultation on the use of intermediary-type structures and self-employment arrangements.

‘The objective of the consultation was to address the loss to the Exchequer in tax and PRSI that may arise under arrangements where an individual, who would otherwise be an employee, establishes a company to provide his or her services. Where we identify risks, we undertake the appropriate compliance interventions, matching the nature of our compliance intervention to the nature and scale of the tax evasion or non-compliance to be tackled.

‘These interventions include aspect queries, profile interviews, Revenue audits and, in the more serious cases, Revenue investigations, some of which lead to criminal prosecution.’

It is estimated that 15,000 people are ‘employed’ in personal service companies and managed service firms.

The estimated gain to the Exchequer and social insurance fund would be between €30m and €60m per annum if 25% to 50% these workers were employed under a contract of service and subject to PAYE.

In the case of the BBC presenter, the British tribunal ruled that Ms Ackroyd should not be criticised because she was ‘encouraged by the BBC to contract through a personal service company’.

‘Setting up firms to be paid is frowned on’