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Mainpay v HMRC: Court of Appeal rejects ‘discontinuous employment’; umbrella assignments are separate permanent workplaces; causal link required between carelessness and tax loss for extended assessment time limits

Published on: 15 October 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert
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Mainpay Ltd v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 1290

Mainpay operated as an umbrella employer, engaging temporary staff and providing their services to end clients. Each engagement was classified as a temporary workplace, with workers’ expenses reimbursed gross. HMRC issued assessments on the footing that each separate assignment amounted to a permanent workplace, so payroll taxes ought to have been deducted from the expense payments. The arrangements pre-dated the avoidance provisions for intermediaries under section 339A of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA 2003). The First-tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) and the Upper Tribunal (UT) both dismissed Mainpay’s submissions and upheld HMRC’s assessments. Mainpay appealed to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the tax tribunals had applied the wrong legal test. It contended that, because a worker’s service was carried out under a single contract, there existed one ‘discontinuous contract of employment’...

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