A tax tribunal decision involving Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has attracted significant attention across the sport sector after National Group football referees were found to be self-employed for tax purposes rather than employees.
The ruling is likely to be of interest far beyond football officiating, particularly for organisations that rely on flexible workforce models involving coaches, officials, consultants and other specialist roles. However, it is important to understand what the tribunal did, and did not, decide.
This was a tax case rather than an Employment Tribunal decision about employment rights. Although there is overlap between the tests applied in tax and employment law, the legal position is not identical, and sports organisations should be cautious about treating the ruling as a definitive answer on employment status more broadly.
What did the tribunal decide?
The case concerned HMRC’s challenge to the employment status of referees engaged by PGMOL between 2014 and 2019.
HMRC argued that the referees should be treated as employees for tax purposes, which would have resulted in significant PAYE and National Insurance liabilities.
The tribunal disagreed, concluding that the referees were self-employed. In reaching that decision, it considered a range of familiar status factors, including the level of control exercised by PGMOL, whether there was mutuality of obligation between the parties, and the practical reality of the working relationship.
The judgment is the latest in a long line of status disputes examining where the boundary sits between employment and self-employment in modern working arrangements.
Why were the referees found to be self-employed?
One of the key issues was the degree of obligation between the parties.
The tribunal found there was no overarching obligation for PGMOL to offer matches to referees, nor for referees to accept appointments offered to them. Engagements operated on a match-by-match basis, which weighed against an employment relationship.
The tribunal also examined the level of control exercised over referees. While PGMOL maintained clear standards, performance expectations and assessment procedures, that structure alone was not enough to establish employment status for tax purposes.
The wider reality of the relationship was also important. Referees were not integrated into PGMOL in the same way employees typically would be, and many had separate careers and professional commitments outside football.
Taken together, those factors supported the conclusion that the referees were operating on a self-employed basis for tax purposes.
Why the distinction matters
One important point arising from the decision is that tax status and employment rights status are not always the same.
Although courts and tribunals often consider similar factors in both contexts, employment law recognises an additional category of “worker”, which sits between employee and self-employed contractor. Worker status carries certain employment rights, including entitlement to holiday pay and minimum wage protections, but applies under a lower legal threshold than full employee status.
As a result, a finding that an individual is self-employed for tax purposes does not automatically remove wider employment law risk.
That distinction is particularly important in sectors such as sport, where organisations often engage individuals through flexible and non-traditional working arrangements.
