What is IR35? A Guide for TV & Broadcast Freelancers

IR35 is the UK tax rule that decides whether a freelancer working through their own limited company should pay tax like an employee. If a contract would be employment were it not for your company in the middle, the contract is "inside IR35" and income tax and National Insurance are taken off your fees much as they would be from a salary. If it isn't, the contract is "outside IR35" and you're paid as a business.

For most TV and broadcast freelancers, the important point is this: if you work for a medium or large client in the UK, the client decides your IR35 status, not you. This guide explains how that works, how status is decided, what changed in 2026 and what to do if you think a decision is wrong.

Last updated November 2026. This is general guidance, not tax advice. Speak to an accountant about your own situation.

IR35 in 60 seconds

• IR35 only applies if you work through an intermediary, usually your own limited company (a "personal service company"). It doesn't apply to sole traders or to freelancers paid through PAYE.
• Medium and large clients decide your status and must give you a Status Determination Statement (SDS) with their reasons. This has applied in the public sector since April 2017 and the private sector since April 2021.
• If the client is "small", you (your company) still decide your own status, as before 2021.
• Status is decided contract by contract. You can be inside IR35 on one job and outside on the next.
• The key tests are whether you must do the work personally, how much control the client has over how you work, and whether there's an ongoing obligation to offer and accept work.
• From April 2026 more clients count as "small", and agencies became liable for unpaid tax if an umbrella company they use doesn't pay it.

What is IR35?

IR35 is the name for the UK's "intermediaries legislation". It takes its name from the number of the Inland Revenue press release that announced it in the 1999 Budget, and it came into force in April 2000.

It was aimed at "disguised employment": people who left a job on Friday and came back on Monday doing the same work through a limited company, paying themselves in dividends to cut their tax and National Insurance, while the client saved employer's National Insurance. IR35 makes sure that, where the working relationship looks like employment, roughly the same tax is paid as if it were.

IR35 isn't aimed at any one industry, but it matters a lot in broadcast, where a large share of the workforce is freelance and many freelancers work through their own companies.

Who decides your IR35 status?

Since the "off-payroll working" reforms, it depends on who your client is:

• Public sector clients (since April 2017): the client decides.
• Medium and large private sector clients (since April 2021): the client decides.
• Small private sector clients: your own company decides, as it always did.
• Clients with no UK presence: the off-payroll rules don't apply, so your company decides.

Where the client decides, it must take "reasonable care" and give you a Status Determination Statement explaining its conclusion. If it fails to take reasonable care, the client becomes liable for the tax.

The organisation that pays your company (the "fee-payer") is responsible for deducting tax if the contract is inside IR35. That's the client if it pays you directly, or the agency if you're placed through one, such as Frame 25. The client's determination has to be passed down the chain to whoever pays you.

Does your client count as "small"?

A private company is "small" if it meets at least two of these three tests. The financial limits went up in April 2026:

The test looks at the client's previous accounts, so some companies that are now "small" won't switch over until 2027. Plenty of production companies and facilities sit close to these limits, so if you're unsure, ask the client or your agency who is making the determination.

Inside or outside IR35: what's the difference to your pay?

Outside IR35: your company invoices as normal, pays corporation tax on its profits and you pay yourself as you choose (usually a mix of salary and dividends). You can claim business expenses.

Inside IR35: the fee-payer treats your fees as employment income. Income tax and employee National Insurance are deducted before the money reaches your company, and the fee-payer pays employer's National Insurance on top. You can't claim most business expenses against that income, and you don't gain employment rights such as holiday pay or sick pay from the client. Many freelancers on inside contracts choose to be paid through an umbrella company or directly through PAYE instead of their own company.

Because the client's costs go up when a contract is inside IR35 (employer's National Insurance has been 15% since April 2025), day rates are often negotiated differently for inside and outside roles. It's worth agreeing which applies before you agree a rate.

How IR35 status is decided

There's no single checklist in law. HMRC and the courts look at the whole relationship, including how you actually work day to day, not just what the contract says. Three factors matter most:

1. Personal service and substitution

Do you have to do the work yourself? If your company has a genuine right to send a suitably skilled substitute, and the client can't simply refuse them, that points strongly away from employment. A substitution clause that's never used in practice, or that the client can veto, carries much less weight. The courts accepted reasonable conditions on substitutes (for example, that they're suitably qualified) in cases such as Express & Echo v Tanton (1999).

2. Control

A client will always set out what's needed, where and when. The question is whether it controls how you do the work. A specialist who decides how to light a set or cut a sequence is in a different position from someone told how to do each task and supervised like a member of staff.

3. Mutuality of obligation

Is there an ongoing obligation for the client to offer work and for you to accept it, beyond the job in hand? Being booked for a defined project is different from being on a rolling arrangement where you're expected to be available whenever you're needed.

These three come from the long-standing employment status test set out in Ready Mixed Concrete v Minister of Pensions (1968). Other factors are also weighed, including:

• whether you supply your own equipment
• whether you take financial risk (for example, fixing mistakes at your own cost)
• whether you're treated like staff ("part and parcel" of the organisation, with a staff pass, email address or line manager)
• whether you work for several clients and market your business

What this can look like in broadcast

Every contract is different, but as a rough guide:

• More likely to be inside IR35: a rolling contract working rostered shifts in a client's MCR or gallery, on the client's kit, managed by the client's team and doing the same work as their staff.
• More likely to be outside IR35: a camera operator or editor booked for a defined project, using their own kit, deciding how to deliver the work, free to send a qualified substitute and working for several clients in the same period.

HMRC's CEST tool

HMRC's free Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool asks a series of questions about a contract and gives a view on whether IR35 applies. HMRC says it will stand by the result if the information you enter is accurate. Many clients use it as part of their determination. It's a useful sense check, but it doesn't consider every factor the courts look at, so it's no substitute for advice on a borderline contract.

What if you disagree with a determination?

If a client decides a contract is inside IR35 and you think that's wrong, you can challenge it through the client's disagreement process. Clients covered by the off-payroll rules must have one.

• Set out in writing why you disagree, with evidence about how the work is actually done (for example, your substitution rights, your own kit, or the other clients you work for).
• The client must consider it and reply within 45 days, either confirming its decision with reasons or issuing a new determination.
• Keep copies of your contract, the Status Determination Statement and any correspondence.

Your agency can help you raise it. If you're placed through Frame 25, talk to your consultant first.

How IR35 has changed: a timeline

For more on the umbrella changes, see our guide to the umbrella company reforms.

A quick IR35 checklist for freelancers

• Before you agree a rate, ask whether the role is inside or outside IR35 and who is making the determination.
• Ask for the Status Determination Statement in writing, and read the reasons.
• Check the contract matches how you actually work, especially substitution, control and notice terms.
• Keep evidence that you run a business: other clients, your own equipment and insurance, your website and marketing.
• If you're inside IR35, compare being paid via your company, an umbrella company or PAYE before you start.
• Get an accountant who knows freelancing in TV and broadcast to check anything borderline.

IR35 FAQs

Does IR35 apply to sole traders?

No. IR35 only applies where you work through an intermediary such as a limited company. A client can still decide a sole trader should be on its payroll, but that's a separate employment status question.

Can I be inside IR35 on one contract and outside on another?

Yes. Status is decided for each contract, based on how that particular piece of work is done.

Who pays if a determination is wrong?

Usually the fee-payer (the client or the agency that pays your company). If the client didn't take reasonable care, the liability moves to the client. Since April 2024, tax you and your company already paid can be offset.

Does being inside IR35 make me an employee?

No. It changes how your fees are taxed, but it doesn't give you employment rights such as holiday pay, sick pay or unfair dismissal protection from the client.

Do the off-payroll rules apply if my client is overseas?

If the client has no UK presence, the off-payroll rules don't apply and your own company assesses IR35, as it did before 2021.

Related guides

• Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) explained
• Starting a limited company as a broadcast freelancer
• Lorimer letters: what media freelancers need to know
• Umbrella company reforms: Frame 25's guide

Looking for your next role? See our current broadcast and media jobs or upload your CV. If you have a question about IR35 on a Frame 25 booking, get in touch.