In ITV Services Ltd v HMRC (TC00836 – 10 December) a television company had treated several actors as employed earners and accounted for Class 1 national insurance contributions on the amounts it paid them. From December 2006 it ceased to account for Class 1 NICs treating the actors as self-employed. HMRC issued determinations charging NICs on the payments and the company appealed. The First-Tier Tribunal reviewed the evidence in detail and allowed the appeal in part issuing a decision in principle that the company was required to account for NICs in respect of most of the types of contracts but not where the actors were ‘engaged to perform a specific role in a specific programme engaged for a specific period of engagement and received a single total inclusive fee’.
Why it matters: This is an important decision on the borderline between employment and...
