We only act for trades

A general practice sees CIS twelve times a year. We see it every day.

The Construction Industry Scheme is not difficult. It is detailed, it is unforgiving about dates, and it interacts with VAT and with employment status in ways that are easy to get individually right and collectively wrong. A firm that acts for a hairdresser, a haulier and a handful of builders will get the returns filed. What it will rarely do is notice that your materials figure has never reduced a deduction because the contractor buys them, or that you have been paying 20% for two years when you would pass the turnover test for gross payment status comfortably.

We do one sector, so those things are the first questions rather than the last.

What that means in practice

• Your CIS suffered is reconciled to your payment and deduction statements, not estimated from bank receipts, and it appears on your balance sheet as the tax asset it is.
• If you are a company subcontractor, the offset is claimed monthly through the EPS, in the month it arises, rather than left to accumulate until after 5 April.
• Your end-user and intermediary notifications are on file in writing before you invoice, because without them the reverse charge is the default and getting it wrong creates an error on both sides of the transaction.
• The materials split on your invoices is checked. Materials you have directly incurred reduce the deduction base. Materials the contractor reimburses do not.
• The van-or-car question is answered three times, because benefit in kind, VAT input tax and capital allowances use three different tests and do not always agree.

What we will not do

We will not tell you that a labour-only arrangement is safely self-employed because you have registered the person for CIS and deducted 20%. CIS 340 is explicit that a contract within the scheme must not be a contract of employment, that it is for the contractor to consider employment status when a subcontractor is first engaged, and that the fact somebody has worked self-employed before is irrelevant — it is the terms of the particular engagement that matter. Employment status is decided by common law, and registering somebody for CIS does nothing whatsoever to establish that they are self-employed.

The exposure there sits with the contractor, and a 20% deduction is a fraction of the PAYE, employee National Insurance and 15% employer National Insurance that would have been due. We would rather have that conversation early than after a status enquiry.

Fixed monthly fees

Quoted after a free review and agreed before we start. No hourly billing, and no invoice you have not already seen the number for.