ESM4138E | Particular Occupations: Entertainment Industry: TV and Radio Presenters: Factors in Determining Employment Status for Tax: Examples for television presenters – talking head

Key Facts

Professor Penelope Exposition is an academic expert and the author of an acclaimed study. She is hired as a contributor to a documentary and interviewed at length. She also acts as an advisor to the programme which draws heavily on her book. Her contribution is filmed over two days and she works closely with the production team and interviewer to help their understanding of the material. She is paid a single fee for her contribution.

When she is available, Penelope is interviewed in her study and the production team give her tips on how to behave in front of the camera, but her contribution is unscripted and largely consists of a simplified version of her book. There is no requirement to clear content with the engager – they film what she says.

Penelope is required to comply with Ofcom guidelines, but the contract contains no detail and no mechanism for ensuring this other than termination. In practice, when she says something transgressive it is edited out.

Penelope is not dependent on the engager for work. She is employed as an academic and has a self-employed business as a writer. She has a side-line as an occasional contributor to television and radio news and current affairs programmes.

Outcome – Penelope is likely to be self-employed

Mutuality of Obligation ESM4133

There is sufficient mutuality of obligation comprising the agreement for work in return for pay.

Personal Service ESM4134

Penelope is personally required to provide her services.

Control ESM4135

Short engagements like this where the expert talking head is in a sense partly the subject of the programme, tend to require less control over the presenter than longer engagements. Penelope had significant say over the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ the material should be filmed. Penelope is subject to an obligation to comply with Ofcom rules but otherwise not subject to a right of control over when, where or how the work is performed. A requirement to abide by Ofcom rules is not on its own sufficient right of control to place this in the employment sphere.

Other factors ESM4136

If there is insufficient control these factors do not need to be considered. In this example they are also inconsistent with an employment. Penelope’s appearance is part of her wider business as an author and contributor. Neither party have more than a fleeting commitment to each other and this lack of ongoing commitment is consistent with the engager simply being another client of her business. Penelope has no economic dependence on her engager.

For other examples of TV presenter roles see ESM4138