Presenter salaries

[Nicky-j]

They cannot be legally self employed.

I'm a bit confused by this. Is this something limited to broadcasting? What would not be legal about it? I'm self-employed. I declare my earnings, pay tax and so on. I don't run a limited company and as far as I know (and my tax returns/dealing with the authorities have been just fine for many years) I have not broken a law.

 

[Breeze]

They cannot be legally self employed.

I'm a bit confused by this. Is this something limited to broadcasting? What would not be legal about it? I'm self-employed. I declare my earnings, pay tax and so on. I don't run a limited company and as far as I know (and my tax returns/dealing with the authorities have been just fine for many years) I have not broken a law.

Yes, I'm confused too Nicky.
I do run a limited company, I'm a partner in it, & know there are several ways to be self employed.
We contract out some jobs to people who are not running limited companies, some are Sole Traders, others are plain self employed. they don't have to submit stuff to Companies House like we do but are not doing anything illegal, as neither are we. Everything is submitted through accountants to the tax man etc.

 

[stratobuddy]

I bet if the presenters are reading this they will be having a good laugh about the wild guesses.

 

[silversequin]

Well I am guessing they earn more than me!

 

[Spotted Wonder]

I don't know what the presenters earn, but when I was at QVC in June, I saw Julian's Ferrari with personal plates, and he told me he lives in Spain, has a holiday home in France and a flat in London for when he's working (which is only 3 days per week) and he also said that Ollie (that used to co-present the DIY shows used to get £300 per show.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Sorry if I've confused anyone.

What I should have said is that the presenters cannot be self employed. And they cannot be self employed because of the nature of their work and the way that they work. To be self employed you are basically your own boss. If you're self employed, you decide when to do the work and how to do the work. If someone says come and work in my office/tv studio for three hours on Friday from 9 until 11 then you are an employee because the other company is dictating what you do and when. The obligation is with the employer and not the employee. And its more of a tax issue than a legal issue I suppose. Because if you get someone to do work for a company and they're self employed the company does not pay employers tax and NI. And neither does the company collect tax and NI.

A company like QVC could not risk hiring people to publicly do what the presenters do without employing them. Or without hiring through a limited company. That would simply shift the risk from QVC to the limited company.

Hope that explains what I was waffling about.

And there is nothing illegal about being self employed ... as long as you really are self employed. I run my own business but I am not self employed. I am employed by the business. Even though I am my own boss. Complerkated innit?

 

[HoodedClaw]

They could still be self employed Tinkerbelle: if they are classed as "sub-contracted" by QVC to provide presentation for certain agreed shows at certain rates of pay, and are responsible for paying their own income tax and NI contributions.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Hooded Claw ... its so unlikely. I know I couldn't do it in my business. The rules have changed and The Revenue is clamping down. I think there are exceptions like construction. And television might be another but if they do seriously earn £100k plus then there are tax advantages to being a limited company.

 

[London]

I agree that they are probably salaried. Gosh work it out at £1500 an hour and with some of them on ten hours a week at least then that is £15000 a week x 52 so the figure becomes ridiculous.

Exactly, they are not footballers afterall!:cheeky:

 

[Kitee]

As far as I know most of the presenters also earn income from elsewhere, not soley from QVC. In the past I've heard them refer to having to do their VAT returns and accounts so are probably either self-employed on a contract, or have their own company and invoice QVC.

 

[JustBrowsingMadam]

Is the question how much do they get paidor how much do they earn, there's a big difference! They get paid a ruddy fortune but earn about 2d. Having said that, they do provide a lot of entertainment albeit not how it's intended.

 

[QuiteVacuousChat]

One wonders why, if they are so well remunerated, some of them don't seem to be able to afford any decent clothes or a visit to the hair dresser.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

As far as I know most of the presenters also earn income from elsewhere, not soley from QVC. In the past I've heard them refer to having to do their VAT returns and accounts so are probably either self-employed on a contract, or have their own company and invoice QVC.

The VAT comments would indicate they earn/invoice over £73k. You can be VAT registered if you invoice less but you don't have to.

 

[Jabbathehut]

Exactly, they are not footballers afterall!:cheeky:

Might as well be because they do talk a load of balls @ times :angel::tongue:

 

[BurlyBeaR]

i think the word we are looking for is "freelance". i.e not salaried by QVC but contracted on an agreed basis for XX number of hours per month/year. QVC no doubt tie them into not doing types of work which could conflict. the presenter will then bill Q for the number of hours they worked that month - hence doing their own accounts. Or maybe they work through an agency like the models?

There are 5 main types of business:
Sole Trader
Partnership
Limited Partnership
Limited Company
Public Limited Company

if they are freelance and not working for an agency then it would have to be under one of the above arrangements. i'd guess theyre set up as limited companies as there are significant tax advantages of doing this.

 

[amn]

There was a documentary on a year or two back that looked at what people earn, and average earnings for people in different types of employment, (it was presented by somebody Snow - the son of that bloke who does the election programmes with the swingometer) and they talked about different bands of earnings, i.e. up to £15,000 is this type of job etc etc, and they actually talked about shopping telly presenters, not QVC specifically, but they were talking round about the £40k mark I think, I remember being surprised at it being less than I'd have imagined as it was 'telly work', but like someone else mentioned, it's not big time major league A list telly is it. And like has also been mentioned a lot of them do other work too don't they.

 

[Nicky-j]

The VAT comments would indicate they earn/invoice over £73k. You can be VAT registered if you invoice less but you don't have to.

There are advantages, of course, of being registered for VAT. You can claim back the VAT paid for legitimate business costs. On the other hand, you have to pay it, too, for services you have done which incur VAT. The type of business you are in dictates how useful it is so someone being registered for VAT might not indicate earnings etc.

 

[mollymoo]

No wonder they charge the earth for p and p!!!!

 

[BurlyBeaR]

There are advantages, of course, of being registered for VAT. You can claim back the VAT paid for legitimate business costs. On the other hand, you have to pay it, too, for services you have done which incur VAT. The type of business you are in dictates how useful it is so someone being registered for VAT might not indicate earnings etc.

i bet you can have a ball with that as a ST presenter. make up - legit business cost. hair - legit business cost. wardrobe - legit business cost. buying loads of stuff to compare with Q's offerings - legit business costs.

in fact i cant think of much that you couldnt put down to legit business costs!

another point that supports them being freelance and not salaried is that Q wouldnt want to get into messy HR "performance management" issues if the presenter went off the boil and stopped selling. they'd want to get rid pronto - remember sunitta shroff?

 

[amn]

Found this site, which again doesn't mention QVC by name but on the home page it does say something about someone went via them on to get a contract with Ideal World for £30k. The testimonials page on the link does contain some veeeery familiar faces though......

http://www.presenterpromotions.com/testimonials/testimonials.html