Employment status: the death throes of the tests of mutuality of obligation and control

The UK Supreme Court in HMRC v Professional Game Match Officials Ltd answered two contentious issues about the identification of contracts of employment for the purpose of tax law. The first rejected the claim that ‘mutuality of obligation’ is a necessary feature of contracts of employment unless it is interpreted to mean the same as ‘consideration’, an essential requirement for all legally binding contracts. The second interpreted the meaning of the necessary requirement of control exercised by the employer to require no more than authority granted by a contractual framework backed up with the possibility of imposing sanctions for poor performance. Although the case concerned a question of tax law, the Supreme Court intermingled case law from employment law as well, so that the case is the leading authority on mutuality of obligation and control for employment law as well.