Grounds for being considered self-employed rather than going on the payroll?

[fluffles]

I work for a large organisation and want to employ a freelancer to deliver a fixed-price final product (a short film in this case).

Apparently the law has changed in the last year or two and i now have to fill out neverending forms justifying "precisely" why this person is self-employed.

I assume it's to stop us using s-e people rather than staff for jobs staff could do.

but anyway - if you were asked 'precisely' why you are self employed and not on payroll for your client, what would you answer?

thanks.

HMRC's view is here.

From what I can guess about your situation, you can probably answer 'No' to all of the questions which indicate employment and 'Yes' or 'Not applicable' to those which indicate self-employment, so you are safe.

The main reason HMRC is keen on this is to maximise its National Insurance revenue.

The main reason you have to fill out those never-ending forms (well, one of them anyway) is so that your large organisation can demonstrate that it is complying with the law without expecting everyone responsible for engaging freelancers to be a legal expert: if you answer the questions on the form it will give you the right answer and HMRC will be happy.