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This is the original version (as it was originally enacted).

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Dealing with HMRC can be a daunting experience for self-employed performers and theatre workers. Paul Clayton explains why careful preparation and finding the right accountant are essential to ensure the process is as straightforward as possible

At drama school I spent six weeks rehearsing Gorky, five on Ibsen and a mercifully short three weeks on Chekhov. Since then, in 40 years working as an actor, four weeks in an unremarkable early-1980s production of The Cherry Orchard have been my only contact with these heavyweights of drama.

Though my training aimed to improve my stagecraft, we never looked at the many other things that are an essential part of my daily life as an actor. Every year since 1978, I've had to complete a tax return. In fact, I have absolutely no idea how to complete one and have relied on an accountant to do it for me. At drama school, we had no tuition on the more practical aspects of working in the industry.

Having had the opportunity to visit many drama schools recently as part of their professional development curriculum, I know that has changed now. But I do wonder just how practical these sessions are. Does anyone ever show them what a tax return looks like - or how to complete it?

Find the right accountant

Speaking to graduates about the need for an accountant, many of them show disbelief. Today's drama graduates are increasingly realistic in their objectives. The common answer I receive is: "I won't earn enough in my first year to need an accountant."

But that could be the first misstep in running your business. It's a much-needed nod to your prospects as a graduate that you are likely to do a lot of work other than acting for several years. Not all of this work will be on a self-employed basis, and you may find yourself working on several different tax codes and in different situations regarding the tax that is due.

With the right tuition, it is perfectly possible to collate all these different sources of earnings together yourself and complete your tax return. But it's easy to make mistakes - exactly the sort of thing that the eagle-eyed bureaucrats at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs are looking for. Paying tax is a moral responsibility and it's a legal requirement to make sure that you pay what you owe. That said, it's also essential you don't pay any more than you should, so getting the right professional advice is absolutely vital.

Many graduates tell me that their parents have an accountant. They may think of that as a badge of honour. I know I did. My parents ran a small corner shop in a Yorkshire mining village and their accountant took me on for the first two years of my working life as an actor. But he was no specialist in the world of entertainment. As a result, I had poor guidance. I ended up paying a lot of tax in the first 18 months of my acting career - tax that should have been defrayed by expenses. He claimed some things for me, but not enough. It took me several years to recover from those early tax bills.

Now, I make sure that my accountant saves me more in tax than he charges me in fees. It's a necessary part of my expenditure as an actor. There are lots of specialists out there who have actors on their books. Getting one of them to represent you may be the best way of coping with the increasingly complex field of legislation and the myriad requirements placed on you as a taxpayer. With the impending threat of quarterly digital returns, knowing exactly what is going on in the world of tax is vital to your financial success as an actor.

Register as self-employed

If you're starting out as a graduate, then it's important to register as self-employed within six months of the end of the tax year in which you began working. A graduate leaving drama training this summer should have registered with HMRC before the end of October 2019.

You can, of course, do it earlier. Even if you do just a single day's work on a self-employed basis, you will need to have registered. It's likely that during your first year in the world of work you will do many other jobs that require you to pay tax on a PAYE basis. On these jobs, it will be your responsibility to contact HMRC and get the correct tax code for the work. This will be easier if you have already begun a relationship with them and registered. Failure to get the correct tax code may lead to your valuable part-time job being taxed at a higher rate than necessary and render it less than viable as a source of income during the days when you are 'resting'.

It might be a good idea to speak to your bank and open a separate account for your business. This effectively separates your personal affairs from those of your business and makes record-keeping very straightforward. Have all your salary paid into this account from whatever source and take out a set amount each week or month for your own personal expenses. You can pay professional expenses from this account and your bank statement will then act as a very effective record for tax purposes. In future, digital accounting software will link to your bank account automatically. It is therefore a good idea to have a separate business account to avoid a large number of private items being recorded in your business accounts.

Keep your receipts

You need to make sure you have a record of any expenses you will be claiming against tax. Software is now widely available to photograph hard-copy receipts and keep them as digital records. Equity, Spotlight or a reliable actors' accountant can provide a comprehensive list of just what you can claim.

Barry Kernon, a consultant with the media group at HW Fisher and Company, says that in this area alone, an accountant who really knows his stuff can save you money.

He adds: "Remember: an accountant's not only saving you money, they're saving you the time it would take you to complete your own tax return effectively."

Kernon is one of a number of accountants who donate their time to Tax Aid, a charity that helps people on low incomes when they get into difficulties with their tax affairs. It helps low-earners to understand the bits of the tax system that apply to them (safely ignoring the confusing 98% that don't), pay only the right amount of tax and help them resolve crises when things go wrong.

Don't think of Tax Aid as a replacement for an accountant, but it can help if you are on your own and in difficulties.

There is also a school of thought that you're much less likely to be investigated by HMRC if your return has been prepared by a reliable, reputable agent, though that's not guaranteed. They do make random checks.

Check if your other work is taxed at source

Many actors have other jobs that cannot be fulfilled on a self-employed basis. If you are invoicing, you must state on that invoice that you acknowledge responsibility for paying your own tax. Promotional work, event work and work for agencies has recently come under the HMRC spotlight and agencies should now deduct tax at source.

In March 2016 HMRC stated: "Demonstrating and merchandising work is often undertaken by actors, actresses or models. When doing so, they are not rendering their services as actors, actresses or models and so neither the exceptions in the agency provisions (see ESM2008) nor the Administrative Practice at EIM03002 apply." This basically means you now have to be taxed at source for most work in the promotional market.

Tom Eatenton, chief executive of promotional agency KruLive, is very keen that actors are aware of this.

"We as an agency have the responsibility of paying tax for the actor," he says. "In the case of many agencies, this may delay payment, but at Kru, we know how payment on time is vital to actors taking short-term promotional jobs. We now guarantee that if payments are late as a result of any mistakes made by our agency, we will offer an additional goodwill payment."

If an agency is paying you but not deducting tax at source, then this money should be declared on your self-employment tax return - and HMRC should also be made aware of its omission.

Eatenton adds: "It really helps us if the actor is aware of the situation, approaches us with the correct tax code, and helps us complete the paperwork effectively. We use a huge number of actors each year and are here to make the process easy, but it may start to become easier for us to use people who are already registered with us simply in administrative terms. I would hope that is not the case, given that we trade on the many varied and exciting talents that are out there."

It's an increasingly tricky subject. With constantly changing tax requirements made necessary by the new gig economy and companies such as Uber and Deliveroo, actors whose working lives consist of varied employment have to keep up with the regulations.

Success as an actor is a balancing act, of which performing is just one side of the seesaw. Benjamin Franklin's advice applies to our lives as actors too well. "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
hmrc.gov.uk; taxaid.org.uk

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Tax: what you need to know as a working self-employed actor

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Dealing with HMRC can be a daunting experience for self-employed performers and theatre workers. Paul Clayton explains why careful preparation and finding the right accountant are essential to ensure the process is as straightforward as possible At drama school I spent six weeks rehearsing Gorky, five on Ibsen and a mercifully short three weeks on Chekhov.

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Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment 2015 (revised 2018) | ABTT - The Association of British Theatre Technicians

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Home > SHOP > Books > Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment 2015 (revised 2018)

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You must get Employers' Liability ( EL) insurance as soon as you become an employer - your policy must cover you for at least £5 million and come from an authorised insurer.

EL insurance will help you pay compensation if an employee is injured or becomes ill because of the work they do for you.

You may not need EL insurance if you only employ a family member or someone who is based abroad.

You can be fined £2,500 every day you are not properly insured.

You can also be fined £1,000 if you do not display your EL certificate or refuse to make it available to inspectors when they ask.

Check to see if your insurer is authorised by looking at the Financial Conduct Authority register or contact the Financial Conduct Authority.

You may want to use an insurance broker to help you buy EL.

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You must get Employers' Liability ( EL) insurance as soon as you become an employer - your policy must cover you for at least £5 million and come from an authorised insurer. EL insurance will help you pay compensation if an employee is injured or becomes ill because of the work they do for you.

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We're now three quarters of the way through the transitioning period from the old Data Protection Act to the new regulations. There are just six months to go until the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) starts applying the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But, are we all ready? Well, I think presently the collective answer would be a 'No, we're not there yet'.

GDPR concerns

I've talked with a lot of people about GDPR over the past few months, and in my experience people are becoming more and more aware of it, but also more and more worried about it. Having taken positive steps to find out what's involved, there tends to be something of a dawning realisation of the scale of the task in hand to achieve compliance, and most specifically to be able to demonstrate that compliance. The more you learn about it, the more it seems there is to do.

While we may end up having smaller mailing lists, they will be built up of people who are very likely to be the most responsive

I think these fears are not helped by media reporting of the scariest aspects, but these are usually only a part of the full story of transgressions against which the ICO has taken action, which often get reported less objectively.

I've seen that arts organisations are concerned but also keen to use personal information responsibly. But perhaps there is a gap when it comes to fully understanding the proactive steps organisations must now take.

Putting audiences at the centre

I think my reaction was probably similar to that of many others who've found themselves (willingly or unwillingly) in the position of having to 'take care of GDPR for the organisation'. It follows a fairly similar process to the stages of grief, I should imagine - first denial ("surely all that's not really required?"), anger ("that's completely ridiculous!"), bargaining ("well, maybe we'll be OK if we just do xyz?"), depression ("really, I can't do that? I need some gin") and finally acceptance ("OK. We have to do this. Everybody has to do this. Let's do it properly.")

It's at this point you can move on towards positive progress, to accept the requirements, and perhaps change the paradigm. Rather than worring about the challenges of complying with GDPR, try seeing it as a positive opportunity to focus on audiences, really putting people in control of their personal information, and letting them be clear about how they want to communicate with us - and for us to be clear about how we want to communicate with them.

Long-term positive effects

Many organisations have expressed concern about the potentially large degree to which their marketing lists might shrink if, upon review, they have to either change their legal basis for contacting individuals (from say, 'consent' to 'legitimate interests'), or else go back to their audiences to get them to re-consent in a way that gives the audience more clarity about the ways their data will be used, (detailing which comms channels might be used, for which uses, and which organisations their data might be shared with). That gives the organisation the audit trail of data required to be able to evidence their compliance. Such list-shrinkage may indeed be a result for some. But this might not be such a bad thing in the end.

While we may end up having smaller mailing lists, they will be built up of people who are very likely to be the most responsive, because on both sides of the conversation we're very clear about what the conversation should be about, and how it should be conducted. The return on investment from the use of these new lists is likely to be higher - and there's research around to back this up.

Practical steps to take now

It's all very far from doom and gloom, and the upshot of implementing GDPR compliant practice could be a transformative experience for those who really get it right. But, with just six months to go, organisations really do need to make sure they're acting now. There is a lot to think about, but it shouldn't inspire panic. Here are some tips and resources, which could be useful in helping you work towards compliance.

Make a start

There seems an overwhelming amount to get through, which can cause paralysis if you think about the whole job. Think of GDPR as an ongoing process, rather than a mountain to climb against a deadline. The reality is that your data management policy will always need continual attention and review.

So, start somewhere, maybe with your data audit as the logical first step. Ask yourself what data you have and what you need to use it for? Is it necessary for you to hold all the personal information that you do, or can you responsibly dispose of any that you don't really use? Don't forget to document the work you do.

Think about your conditions for processing

When you have a clear understanding of what you need to do, and what the data is that you need to do it, decide the legal basis (the 'conditions for processing') which allow you to use personal data in the way you need to. If you rely on consent, ask yourself whether the permissions that you have captured and stored comply with the requirements of GDPR, or do you need to further clarify consent with your audiences?

This will be something you want to do sooner rather than later, because if you rely on consent and the permissions you have that are not up to scratch for GDPR, you can't use that data after 25 May 2018. So you'll want to get as much right as you can in advance of then to try to limit the shrinkage of your marketing lists as far as you can. Put yourself in the place of your audiences, consider the information notices you give them, to help you understand what they can reasonably expect.

This applies equally if you use 'legitimate interests' - how and where have you given people the information about how you will process their data, and how they can exercise their rights to object, complain, and so on. And if you do use 'legitimate interests', how and where have you done a balancing exercise to weigh your organisation's need to process the personal data against the rights of the individuals?

And remember - it's personal information (e.g. names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, cookies, etc.) from your mailing lists, ticketing systems, CRM, fundraising databases and so on, that you will use for contacting individuals, or to help you decide which individuals to contact, or not, that should be the principal focus. Audience survey data that you collect, if it is anonymous, is out of scope. Don't forget to document the work you do.

Get help

You can't do this all on your own. You will need the support of the board in prioritising the required time, resources and organisation-wide input (and if you struggle to get this, making clear where the liability for non-compliance sits should help).

You will also need the input of your colleagues - that's everyone who encounters, collects, uses or manages personal information across the organisation - to ensure a holistic organisational approach and to disseminate policies and procedures. Arrange regular opportunities to meet, discuss progress, challenges and solutions. Don't forget to document the meetings you have and the work you do.

Make use of resources

There is a wealth of useful information out there - and much of it is free. The ICO's guidance is particularly helpful. There are specific resources such as the Getting Ready for GDPR checklist, and the Preparing for GDPR - 12 Steps to take now guide, both of which are useful start points.

There are also guidance documents about things like doing Data Protection Impact Assessments that include templates you can use to work through. There are more resources emerging about specific areas like consent, automated decision-making and profiling.

The Association of Independent Museums (AIM) has published a useful guide to help small museums understand and successfully navigate the most important things to do now in working towards compliance.

For those organisations involved in fundraising, the Fundraising Regulator has produced useful guidance that will help you to understand your obligations under GDPR and develop a compliant approach to your marketing activities. The Institute of Fundraising has also published helpful guidance on the essentials of GDPR for fundraisers. The Audience Agency has also produced guidance around data sharing that is currently being updated to make sure the new requirements of GDPR are incorporated.

Systematically document your compliance procedures

There are many structured processes you can follow to help you document the work you have done to address and demonstrate your compliance - google 'Data Protection Policy', 'GDPR framework' or similar and see what comes up. The Audience Agency has produced a free sample data management policy structure document that sets out a staged approach to working through the key areas that you need to consider and documenting them.

If you haven't already, make a start now and you'll soon start to see progress being made. Put your audience and their wishes at the centre of your thinking, and let's see how it benefits our relationships.
Leo Sharrock is Director of Data Platforms at The Audience Agency. The Audience Agency offers half-day Organisational GDPR workshops to help organisations prepare for GDPR. This article, sponsored and contributed by The Audience Agency, is part of a series sharing insights into the audiences for arts and culture.
www.theaudienceagency.org

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We're now three quarters of the way through the transitioning period from the old Data Protection Act to the new regulations. There are just six months to go until the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) starts applying the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But, are we all ready?

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Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 What? What is it? Act of parliment Details duties of employer & employee Protect the Health, Safety & Welfare of staff Inforced by Health & Safety Executive, Environmental Health Officers and Fire Officers Links to specific regulations - e.g

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Performing Arts Risk Assessment Guidelines

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Association of British Theatre Technicians

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Association of British Theatre Technicians

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ABTT - The Association of British Theatre Technicians

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Legislation is available in different versions:

Latest Available (revised): The latest available updated version of the legislation incorporating changes made by subsequent legislation and applied by our editorial team. Changes we have not yet applied to the text, can be found in the 'Changes to Legislation' area.

Original (As Enacted or Made): The original version of the legislation as it stood when it was enacted or made. No changes have been applied to the text.

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An Act to make provision to require Ministers of the Crown and others when making strategic decisions about the exercise of their functions to have regard to the desirability of reducing socio-economic inequalities; to reform and harmonise equality law and restate the greater part of the enactments relating to discrimination

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NB: this summary does not take the place of a thorough training in, and understanding of, the Equality Act across your organisation.
As a provider of goods, facilities and services, you have duties under the Equality Act (2010) and it may well be that programming assisted performances could be seen as a means by which you are meeting those duties. Done well, programming assisted performances will take you beyond compliance into good practice and you will accrue some or all of the other benefits mentioned elsewhere in this resource.

Disability is one of a number of protected characteristics within the Equality Act, and it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of any of those characteristics (though note that the details of what counts as discrimination and how the protection works vary between characteristics).

A person is protected under the disability provisions of the Act if they have - or have had - a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to perform 'normal day-to-day activities'. There are other specific provisions protecting, for example, people with recurring conditions, people with a mental health issue and people with a 'severe disfigurement'.

There are a number of forms of discrimination:

Direct

Indirect

Arising from Disability

Combined

By association

By perception

Harassment

Victimisation

Direct discrimination, harassment and the failure to make reasonable adjustment are never justifiable. Other forms of discrimination may be justifiable if there is an objective defence, ie if the action is a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate end'.

Whether an adjustment is reasonable or not will depend on considerations such as its effectiveness, its practicality for the organisation concerned, the cost, the resources of the organisation concerned and the availability of financial support.

Duties under the goods, facilities and services provisions are anticipatory.

In April 2011, the Single Equality Duty became law and, if your organisation is in receipt of public money, you may well be required to fulfill the general duties. In fact, the duties are a very useful tool to support a cross-organisational approach to inclusion.

As the Disability Rights Commission said of the original Disability Equality Duty (now superceded by the Single Equality Duty):

"[t]his means including disabled people and disability equality into everything from the outset, rather than focusing on individualised responses to specific disabled people."

Under the general duty, organisations must have due regard to:

eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act;

advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not;

foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not;

and this involves:

removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;

taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people;

encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

Now go to: A note on the social model of disability

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NB: this summary does not take the place of a thorough training in, and understanding of, the Equality Act across your organisation. As a provider of goods, facilities and services, you have duties under the Equality Act (2010) and it may well be that programming assisted performances could be seen as a means by which you are meeting those duties.

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Contact your council to apply for a premises licence if you intend to sell alcohol or provide 'licensable activities' from a particular venue.

Licensable activities include:

selling alcohol

serving hot food and drinks between 11pm and 5am

You'll also need a licence if you provide the following types of entertainment:

theatrical performance

showing a film

indoor sporting event

boxing or wrestling (indoor or outdoor)

live music

recorded music

dance

facilities for making music

dancing facilities

You still need a licence even if the activities are for charity.

Exemptions

You don't need a licence for some types of entertainment, including:

educational or promotional films

films shown as part of an exhibition in a museum or gallery

incidental music (live or recorded)

Restrictions

You must be 18 or over to apply for a premises licence.

Conditions

You must be, or appoint, a designated premises supervisor ( DPS) when you apply for a licence. A DPS must have a personal licence to sell alcohol.

There may be other conditions added to your licence, eg having an age-checking policy if you sell alcohol.

How to apply

Contact your council for a premises licence.

You'll need to provide:

your details

details of the DPS

a detailed plan of the premises

an operating schedule, eg hours when alcohol will be sold

You must display your 'application notice' at or on the premises for 28 days from the day after it was submitted.

Licence fees

You'll be charged a fee that's based on the rateable value of the property.

Application fees range from £100 to £1,905, depending on the fee band of your venue.

If your premises doesn't have a rateable value it will fall into the lowest fee band.

Displaying your licence

You must display the 'licence summary' at your premises where it can be easily seen.

The other pages of the licence should be kept safely at the premises. Police or council officers can ask to inspect them at any time.

Length of licence

Most premises licences have an unlimited duration but you will have to pay an annual fee.

Fines and penalties

You can be fined up to £1,000 for failing to produce your licence on request.

If you carry out any licensable activities at your premises without a premises licence, you can be fined, sent to prison for up to 6 months, or both.

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Contact your council to apply for a premises licence if you intend to sell alcohol or provide 'licensable activities' from a particular venue.

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The UK Copyright Laws fact sheet outlines the legislation covering copyright in the United Kingdom and the work to which it applies.

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Once you select a title, you'll be prompted to register with Samuel French if you don't already have an account, and be taken step-by-step through the process of applying for a licence online. Firstly, we will ask for the details of your producing and billing organisation as well as the venue's name, address and seating capacity.

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Performance Regulations - The Guide to Musical Theatre

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PHOTOCOPYING, ARRANGEMENTS AND ADAPTATIONS The making of photocopies is restricted under copyright law. There are 'fair use' provisions although it is unlikely that they would apply in the case of public performance.

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PPL - PPL licenses recorded music played in public

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PPL licenses recorded music played in public and distributes the fees as royalties to its members.

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PRS For Music

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PRS for Music: royalties, music copyright and licensing

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We protect the value of music by licensing music usage and collecting royalties globally for our members.

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Child performance and activities: licensing legislation

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Departmental advice for those working with children in certain types of performance or activity in England.

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BECTU's group Public Liability Insurance for freelancers working in the entertainment industries is a popular benefit of membership.

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Introduction

The Guide to the GDPR explains the provisions of the GDPR to help organisations comply with its requirements. It is for those who have day-to-day responsibility for data protection.

The GDPR forms part of the data protection regime in the UK, together with the new Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). The main provisions of this apply, like the GDPR, from 25 May 2018.

This guide refers to the DPA 2018 where it is relevant includes links to relevant sections of the GDPR itself, to other ICO guidance and to guidance produced by the EU's Article 29 Working Party - now the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).

We intend the guide to cover the key points that organisations need to know. From now we will continue to develop new guidance and review our resources to take into account what organisations tell us they need. In the longer term we aim to publish more guidance under the umbrella of a new Guide to Data Protection, which will cover the GDPR and DPA 2018, and include law enforcement, the applied GDPR and other relevant provisions.

For a more detailed understanding of the GDPR it's also helpful to read the guidelines produced by the EU's Article 29 Working Party - which has now been renamed the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). The EDPB includes representatives of the data protection authorities from each EU member state, and the ICO is the UK's representative. The ICO has been directly involved in drafting many of these. We have linked to relevant EU guidelines throughout the Guide to GDPR.

We produced many guidance documents on the previous Data Protection Act 1998. Even though that Act is no longer in force, some of them contain practical examples and advice which may still be helpful in applying the new legislation. While we are building our new Guide to Data Protection we will keep those documents accessible on our website, with the proviso that they cannot be taken as guidance on the DPA 2018.

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Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

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The Guide to the GDPR explains the provisions of the GDPR to help organisations comply with its requirements. It is for those who have day-to-day responsibility for data protection. The GDPR forms part of the data protection regime in the UK, together with the new Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).