Amateur gigs - PLI & fee issues

[tbjhilton]

Afternoon all

 

I am the principal tech at our local village hall, and the majority of what I do is with the local AmDram group, which as a member of NODA is insured for all the usual requirements re. PLI, employers liability and so on. However, the venue hosts an increasing number of concerts, gigs, wedding receptions, exhibitions, parties, you get the gist, and I am becoming frequently asked to provide lighting and/or sound for these events, as we have a superb (for the size of the venue) lottery-funded rig.

 

The issue is, although I am quite happy to give up a saturday afternoon/night to help a friend's event go swimmingly, I am getting asked to do more and more of these events for people I don't know, and there has been suggestion I should be paid. I have previously been paid 'in kind', ie alcohol, or occasionally a voucher or something, by people I know personally, thus keeping it all very amateur.

 

I would love to be able to supplement my income by doing these events and charging a fair fee for my services. However, I feel in order to do this I ought to have some PLI and pay tax on the income. I am only likely to make a few hundred pounds a year tops doing this.

 

My 'day job' is as a student on a music degree course, and I am thinking of going in to music teaching as a career, therefore this is not a full-time 'proper' job. I have worked on the casual crews of Norwich Playhouse and Norwich Theatre Royal, and done a season with the NYT, and had a whole host of AmDram and school experience including some large-scale musicals with casts of over 100, so I have enough backing to prove my worth as a humble AmDram tech, but I really feel I can't charge a fee without going by the book and offering PLI to cover my behind.

 

The thing is, apart from being unsure what sort of fee is fair to charge anyway, a lot of potential 'clients' probably don't consider the use of decent LX & Sound facilites to be worth a huge fee, especially as they have to pay more to the venue for the 'wear & tear of equipment fee' if they use it, than they pay for the hire of the hall itself. Also, I am going to end up with very little if an already low fee is further crippled by tax & PLI costs.

 

This is of course a prime example of a venue getting lottery funding for a rig before considering who will actually maintain & use it, and the gear is extremely under-used.

 

So does anyone have any suggestions regarding this problem? I am aware that PLI can be obtained through BECTU membership, but am I eligible for membership of any such organisations as essentially an amateur practitioner? And at the end of the day is it going to be worth it after all this, or do I just stick to doing favours for friends and tell other hirers to book a pro company with a touring rig and leave me well alone!

 

Regards

 

Tom

 

p.s. sorry it turned into such a long post, wish I could write such long essays so fast!

[Rob]

I think BECTU is definitely the way to go - They will charge you based on your income level. Call them and ask...

[tbjhilton]

OK, that sounds like a plan. Penny for anyone else's thoughts?

[Big Dave]

BECTU is probably not the way to go in this scenario. The BECTU PLI policy has some very specific restrictions on when it is and when its not valid and I'm pretty sure the latter would apply in the situation (other BECTU policy holders - go read you T&C's!)

 

IMHO, if you are only doing this on the odd occasion, your best bet would be to try and negotiate with venue that you become part or an addition to their hire fee and therefore become employed by them, thus negating the need to have your own PLI as you should be covered by the existing policy (but do get them to check).

 

In your original post you say that you are a student and therefore your tax/NI liability should be almost non existent unless you have another source of income that would take you over the tax threshold.

 

If this is looking that it might be a more regular occurrence, your looking at a PLI bill of at least £300, probably more, but at least you'll see a higher return for your efforts.

 

HTH