THIS POST ABOUT EMPLOYMENT STATUS IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY IS NOW OUT OF DATE – PLEASE SEE OUR NEW INFORMATION HERE.
With Workline’s origin in the Film and TV Industries we thought we’d return to the infamous HMRC ‘Film, Television and Production Industry Guidance Notes’, to look at their crucial advice on how to determine the correct employment status of self-employed workers in these industries.
Issued originally in 2003 and revised in 2011 and 2012, the guidance notes provide advice “with regard to the application of PAYE and National Insurance Contributions to non-permanent, casual and freelance workers in the Film, Television and Production Industries” and contain the all-important list of WHO can legitimately be freelance in these industries. All the details are in our article here (which has also been updated for 2020)
The actual Guidance notes can be seen here at the moment (although they often get archived and are then impossible to find!).
The Guidance notes were substantially updated at the end of December 2019, so please refer to the link at the top of this article for the new guidance. The Appendix 1 list of who can be self-employed has been substantially expanded and the infamous ‘9 month’ rule has disappeared!