HMRC rewrites behind-camera self-employment roles list

HMRC has consolidated its TV and radio behind-camera guidance into a rewritten ESM4120GOV and withdrawn ESM4118GOV. ESM4118 now carries a single line sending readers to ESM4120 for Appendix 1. ESM4115 keeps its full roles-treated-as-self-employed guidance with only the appendix pointer changed from ESM4118 to ESM4120, and ESM4116 keeps its short-term-engagements guidance with only its closing appendix pointer changed from ESM4118 to ESM4120. The rewritten ESM4120 states that earlier guidance is withdrawnGOV and that it is the only guidance relating to Appendix 1GOV.

The Column A-or-Column B mechanism stays: a listed role is appropriately treated as self-employed where the criteria in Column A or Column B, or both, are metGOV, for new contracts and extensions of existing contractsGOV. Roles off the list are not automatically employeesGOV; engagers use the full employment-status indicators at ESM0500GOV, and HMRC recommends the Check Employment Status for Tax toolGOV, standing by its determinations where the agreed inputs stay accurate. Column B still requires engagement on a specific production for a finite periodGOV, with re-engagements on further engagements for a production counting as discrete engagements as defined in ESM4115.

The substance lies in the per-role Column A conditions. The director of photography moves from control over execution plus preparatory work away from the engager's premisesGOV to multiple or overlapping clients, exercise of rare skill and judgement, and no right for the client to switch the worker to other tasksGOVGOV. The composer moves from provision of substantial equipmentGOV to multiple or overlapping clients with no right to switch tasksGOV. The VFX data wrangler and the digital set designer gain explicit Column A conditionsGOVGOV where their old rows carried no criteria beyond a Column B pointerGOVGOV, as do boom operators with substantial equipment or the Hall v Lorimer conditionsGOV. The camera-operator grades keep the substantial-equipment conditions they already had, now restated against each role in the rewritten tableGOVGOV, as do the senior rigger gradesGOVGOV; the advanced, gaffer and greens rigger rows gain explicit substantial-equipment conditionsGOVGOVGOV where the old rows pointed only to Column BGOVGOVGOV, while the construction rigger keeps its specialist-equipment description. The safety diver's Column B entry becomes not applicable, the Column A note being retained that divers are statutorily deemed self-employed for income tax only but usually employed under a contract of service and subject to Class 1 National Insurance, with NIM74050 for the NICs checkGOV.

The legal basis is HMRC's Employment Status Manual at ESM4115, ESM4117 and the rewritten ESM4120, with ESM4118 withdrawn.