Morning Edition: IR35 woes and BT floats

The Financial Times looks forward to another day in court as the Professional Contractors' Group begins High Court action to overturn IR35. According to this industry body, the law, which curbs contractors' traditional tax advantages, is in violation of the Human Rights Act. For its part, the government claims IR35 rights a tax loophole enjoyed by one-person firms.

However, the PCG is confident of victory, claiming as it does, IR35 contravenes the Human Rights Act on three counts, including the accusation that it "amounts to illegal state aid since the government is taxing the one-person consultancy businesses more harshly than their larger competition".

Elsewhere, the future activities of the UK's favourite telco come under the microscope.

The Guardian says a floatation of BT's mobile phone arm, Cellnet, is on the cards and details will be announced very soon. The flotation is part of a bigger break up designed to rescue the company's flagging share price& er.. unlock shareholder value.

According to a company spokesman, however, nothing had been ruled in or out of the company's strategic review, which will be made public in December.

In December? Not if you read the Independent. It believes BT will bring the review forward to the 9 November - if not earlier - in an attempt to counter "hysterical" press and city speculation on the future of the company and, in particular, that of chairman Sir Iain Vallance.

With or without Vallance, BT will have to work out how to finance another expensive mobile phone licence bid. Today, the Italian government will set out the official timetable for its auction. In an bidding process, thought to be worth £20bn to the Italian authorities, BT will bid through Blu, an Italian telecoms consortium, while Vodafone will bid through its Omnitel subsidiary.

Finally, the Independent looks forward to a bumper week of high-tech issues. The paper notes that four out the five companies making their stock market debuts this week are from the battered new economy - Orbital, a knowledge management specialist; ID Data, a systems transaction group; software firm, Raft; and CyberChina, a Chinese technology fund.