Employment Status Revised Revenue Guidelines
Following on from previous bulletins on the subject of Determining Employment Status, Revenue has issued an updated guideline which we have attached for your convenience.
We highlight the main differences between both documents below. However, it is very important that you review your engagement with service providers and contact us where you feel there may be an issue.
Please review this as soon as possible because the deadline for the voluntary disclosure is the 30th of January 2026.
Summary of All Changes Between the Two Documents
| Area | Earlier Document | Revised Dec 2025 Document |
| Overall document structure | Shorter manual, fewer sections, limited examples. | Fully restructured into a comprehensive multi-chapter manual with expanded table of contents, more subsections and detailed examples. |
| Purpose & scope statement | General overview of employment vs self-employment. | Adds explicit clarification that the document was updated December 2025 and significantly expands explanation of purpose and inter-agency boundaries (Revenue, DSP, WRC). |
| Inclusion of 2024 Revised Code of Practice | Not referenced. | New references to the 2024 revised Code of Practice (DSP, Revenue, WRC), explaining its relevance and cross-agency coordination. |
| Emphasis on urgent reclassification | Advises businesses to follow the judgment. | Strong, repeated requirement that businesses must urgently review all workers and reclassify many previously self-employed roles as employees. |
| Five-step decision-making framework | Contains the 5 questions but with basic commentary. | Same 5-step framework but with substantial expansion, more detail, additional case law citations, and more examples. |
| Work/Wage Bargain (Step 1) | Brief explanation. | Much longer explanation citing Supreme Court on different types of contracts (single-task, umbrella, series of tasks). Includes multiple judicial quotations. |
| Personal Service test (Step 2) | Simple explanation of substitution. | Deeply expanded: distinguishes between conditional/unconditional delegation, discusses control of substitutes, clarifies this is a requirement, not a factor. |
| Control test (Step 3) | Short and general. | Major expansion with quotations from Walsh J., MacKenna J., and UK authority on “legally minimum control”. Explicit explanation of residual vs day-to-day control. |
| All Circumstances test (Step 4) | Basic principles only. | Expanded treatment including economic integration, ability to profit, uniform, tools, scheduling, multi-factor reasoning. |
| Legislative context (Step 5) | Brief mention. | Larger section highlighting: platform worker directive; PAYE statutory exceptions; office holder rules; different legislative regimes. |
| Platform Workers | Only general references. | Dedicated section detailing use of apps, algorithmic control, working-hour constraints, task allocation, worker restrictions, EU legislative context. |
| Sectoral guidance | Limited or no sector breakdown. | Major new sector-by-sector detailed guidance including: construction, retail, hospitality, domestic care, transport, media, public sector, platform economy. |
| Domestic & home-based workers | Short mention. | Extensive detail: carers, childminders, home-help workers; taxation thresholds; PAYE obligations; corporation-provided carers; childminder exemptions. |
| Couriers & transport workers | Some discussion. | Significantly expanded. Lists uniforms, branded vehicles, phones, scheduling control, customer communications, exclusivity restrictions—leading to employee classification. |
| Media sector | Minimal notes. | Added depth on presenters, actors, camera operators, journalists, producers, and freelance content creators. Explains when personal service and control tests are met. |
| Public sector workers | No dedicated section. | New dedicated section covering temporary staff, contractors, and agency-filled roles. Clarifies PAYE responsibilities. |
| Workers via companies | Covered briefly. | Reiterates unchanged rule that PAYE does not apply when contracting with a company, except for office holders. Clarifies how to treat workers inside the company. |
| Workers via employment agencies | Limited notes. | Expanded explanation on how PAYE responsibility depends on who pays the worker (agency vs hiring entity). |
| Decision Tree | Simpler version. | Fully updated, aligned precisely with the five-step framework. |
| Examples section | Smaller number of examples with limited depth. | Large increase in number and detail: courier Lisa, broadcaster Ben, public-sector Breda, lecturer Andrew, platform worker scenarios, construction worker examples, domestic carer examples, etc. |
| Case law references | Summaries only. | Extensive direct quotations, multiple case references (Karshan, Pimlico Plumbers, RMC, Montgomery, etc.) woven into each section. |
| Clarity on “single gig = employee” | Mentioned but brief. | Explicit clarification that a single shift or gig can establish an employment contract, even without continuity. |
| Use of tools, uniform, branding, and integration | Not deeply discussed. | More systematic discussion of how uniforms, branding, tools, and integration into the business affect employee status. |
| Warnings regarding earlier DSP decisions | Brief caution. | Stronger, explicit warning that DSP Scope Section decisions cannot be relied upon for Revenue taxation treatment. |
| Cross-references to Revenue Tax & Duty Manuals | Minimal. | Consistent references to other TDMs (Tax & Duty Manuals) on couriers, media, lecturers, agency workers, etc. |