Because many employed workers in the Film, Production & TV Broadcasting industry have often short-term engagements with differing employers, the normal operation of PAYE is regarded impractical and could lead to excessive deductions of tax.
The seven-day rule means that you don’t need to make income tax deductions through PAYE to workers who work for less than one week; that is for six consecutive days or less.
It applies to workers in TV, Film and Production who are often employed for short periods of time and by a succession of different employers.
The rule applies only to Income Tax deductions and not to National Insurance which will be taken in the normal way.
For the rule to apply, workers must work for six consecutive days or less. This includes rest days and weekends, if they fall between the first and last days of the engagement.
For example, if a worker is engaged for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the seven-day rule would apply. But if the worker was engaged for the following Monday and Tuesday they would exceed six days because of the weekend.
Except in circumstances set out below the seven-day rule applies to each engagement separately. Successive engagements should not be aggregated, nor should PAYE be applied retrospectively.
When the seven-day rule doesn’t apply: –
- If you know at the time of payment that the worker will be re-engaged and the total period of engagement (including rest days and weekends) is more than six days.
- If the worker is going to be engaged frequently or at regular intervals.
We manage payrolls for many TV and film companies, please get in touch if you would like to discuss outsourcing a TV, film or production payroll with us.
