The point at issue was whether Mr Sidey received part-time lecturing fees under contracts of service or contracts for services.
Mr Sidey was a barrister and derived his income from three
approximately equal sources – writing, examining titles for
the Land Registry and part-time lecturing.
Assessments under Schedule E were made on him in respect of
the part-time lecturing fees received from two institutions, Thames
Polytechnic and the Inner London Education Authority. Mr Sidney
appealed to the Special Commissioners as he considered that the
remuneration was chargeable under Schedule D.
In the High Court, Knox J. held that the terms and conditions of the appointments were such that the contracts were contracts of service.
Knox J found that there was evidence of quite a significant
amount of control being exercisable by both institutions. Although
no holiday pay was due, this was taken into account in calculating
the hourly rate and it was in any event not a weighty factor.
This is not a particularly important case. The general
principle demonstrated in this case is that a self-employed person
might also have a separate source of income as an employee.
