Fitting is alteration of a building, so it is inside CIS. But fitted furniture sits in the builders' block and stays standard rated even on a zero-rated new build — so one kitchen can carry two VAT rates.
Kitchen & bathroom fitters · CIS scope
Fitting kitchens and bathrooms is alteration of a building or structure, so it is a construction operation and inside CIS. Installing the water supply, sanitation and drainage that go with it is expressly in scope too.
The VAT position is where this trade is genuinely awkward, and it is not a grey area — it is written down. On the construction of a new dwelling, construction services and the materials supplied with them can be zero-rated. But the builders' block keeps a specific list of goods standard rated even so, and fitted furniture is on it, along with carpets and separately hired plant or scaffolding.
The plumbing, the electrical work, the tiling and the labour can be zero-rated. The fitted units are standard rated. One room, one invoice, two rates — and if the invoice does not separate them, the treatment cannot be justified afterwards by anybody.
On an existing occupied dwelling the question does not arise, because the whole thing is repair, maintenance or alteration and is standard rated at 20%. Including in an extension — treating an extension as though it were new build is the most common mis-rating in the trades, and it is expensive in both directions.
The deduction is charged on the payment less materials you directly incurred, consumable stores, fuel other than fuel for travelling, plant hire, the cost of manufacture or prefabrication, and the VAT you charged. Travel and subsistence stay in. And where the contractor buys the materials and recharges them, you have not directly incurred them, so no reduction is due at all.
If the deduction is costing you cash, gross payment status is the fix rather than a workaround — the turnover test is £30,000 of relevant payments net of VAT and materials for a sole trader, and the compliance test, which since 6 April 2024 includes VAT, is the part that needs preparing for.
Partly. Construction services and the materials supplied with them can be zero-rated in the course of constructing a new dwelling, before completion. Fitted furniture is inside the builders' block of non-qualifying goods and stays standard rated regardless. So the units are 20% and much of the rest can be zero — which is why the invoice needs to show them separately. Worktops, appliances and carcassing all need thinking about individually rather than as one “kitchen” line, because the block attaches to the goods rather than to the job.
The block exists to stop goods that are really furniture taking a construction rate because they happen to be screwed to a wall, and kitchen units are the classic case. On a mixed job the safest approach is to identify the furniture element explicitly and price it separately, rather than presenting a single supply-and-fit figure and hoping the whole thing takes one rate. Carpets and separately hired plant or scaffolding sit in the same block, so this is not a kitchen problem so much as a mixed-supply problem.
No. Extensions and alterations to an existing occupied dwelling are standard rated at 20%. The zero rate is for constructing a building designed as a dwelling. This is the single most common mis-rating in the trades and it costs in both directions — charging 20% on genuinely zero-rated new build loses you work, and zero-rating an extension leaves you owing the VAT. On an £80,000 extension, the difference between the two answers is £16,000, and by the time it surfaces the job is usually finished and paid.
If the payment is CIS-reportable, both of you are VAT and CIS registered, the supply is standard or reduced rated, and the builder has not notified you in writing that they are an end user or intermediary supplier — then yes, and you add no VAT. For a private householder it does not apply, because they are not VAT and CIS registered. Absent a written notification the reverse charge is the default. Keep one notification on file per commercial customer rather than per job, and get it before you invoice rather than after somebody queries it.
Three months of statements or returns, and a straight account of what is wrong and what it is costing.
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