CIS, the VAT reverse charge, gross payment status, Making Tax Digital and payroll for Bristol trade businesses. We only act for trades, and we work with you remotely.
The short version. Bristol is in England, so the Building Safety Levy applies here from 1 October 2026, though developments of fewer than 10 units are exempt, and the dutyholder and competence duties in SI 2023/911 apply to all building work. Everything on the tax side is UK-wide: CIS at 20% and 30% with the return due by the 19th and payment by the 22nd, the VAT domestic reverse charge, VAT registration at £90,000, Making Tax Digital, employer NIC at 15% above £5,000, and the £1,000,000 annual investment allowance. Building control for your work here sits with Bristol City Council.
A Bristol trade business buying vans, tools, plant and a pick-up is dealing with four different sets of rules, two of which changed in 2025 and 2026. Start with the one that covers almost everything: the annual investment allowance gives 100% relief in the year of purchase on most plant and machinery, is £1,000,000 for both 2025-26 and 2026-27, and is available to sole traders, partnerships and companies alike. Business cars are excluded, as are items owned for another purpose before coming into the business, and gifts.
Two newer changes pull in opposite directions. From 1 January 2026 a new 40% first-year allowance on main-rate plant is available to all businesses rather than companies only — but second-hand assets, cars and overseas leasing are excluded, and it is worse than the AIA's 100%, so it only matters where annual capital spend exceeds £1m. Meanwhile the main-rate writing-down allowance falls from 18% to 14%, from 1 April 2026 for corporation tax and 6 April 2026 for income tax, which slows relief on everything already in the main pool. On a £40,000 pool that is £5,600 of allowance instead of £7,200.
Then the vehicle question, which is not one question but three. Van or car has separate definitions and separate consequences for benefit in kind (van charge £4,170 for 2026/27, fuel £798, or nil where private use is restricted; car benefit on list price and CO2 with a £29,200 fuel multiplier), VAT input tax (blocked on a car, recoverable on a commercial vehicle) and capital allowances (no AIA and no full expensing on a car). HMRC stopped aligning its car and van definitions with the VAT definitions from 6 April 2025, so the three can genuinely diverge on one vehicle.
Double-cab pick-ups are where that bites. Most are now cars, on a primary suitability test following the Court of Appeal in Payne & Ors (Coca-Cola). The two transitional rules run to different dates: benefit-in-kind protection for a vehicle purchased, leased or ordered before 6 April 2025 can last to 5 April 2029, while the capital allowances protection ended on 1 October 2025. So the same pick-up can be a van on the driver's P11D and a car in the company's tax computation at the same time.
The same work whichever trade you are in, because the problems are the scheme's rather than the trade's. We run the monthly CIS return and verification cycle, apply for and protect gross payment status, get the reverse charge right on your invoices and get end user notifications on file, put your records on software that satisfies Making Tax Digital, run payroll with the CIS offset claimed monthly through the employer payment summary, and prepare the accounts and tax return.
Two things we do that a general accountant usually does not. We reconcile your CIS suffered to the payment and deduction statements every month rather than once a year, which is where under-claimed materials and missing statements turn up — see the records guide. And we treat your VAT compliance as part of your CIS position, because since 6 April 2024 it literally is: VAT joined CIS, PAYE, income tax and corporation tax in the gross payment status compliance test.
We write for each trade separately, because the scope questions differ. An electrician is inside CIS on power, lighting and fire protection and outside it on burglar alarms and CCTV. A steel fabricator is outside the scheme on manufacture and delivery to site and inside it on erection. A scaffolder is inside CIS, and separately hired scaffolding is standard rated for VAT even on a zero-rated new build. There are pages for plumbers, roofers, groundworkers, joiners, bricklayers, plasterers and every other trade we act for.
Three free calculators, no email required: the CIS deduction calculator shows what materials do to a deduction, the gross payment status checker tests you against all three statutory tests, and the reverse charge checker works through the six conditions on a specific job.
Usually yes. A van is plant and machinery, so the annual investment allowance gives 100% relief on the cost in the year of purchase, and the allowance is £1,000,000 for both 2025-26 and 2026-27 — available to sole traders, partnerships and companies. A company buying a new and unused van can use full expensing instead, which is uncapped and permanent. From 1 January 2026 there is also a 40% first-year allowance open to unincorporated businesses, though it excludes second-hand assets and is worse than the AIA's 100%. On the cash basis as a sole trader the van is simply deducted as an allowable expense, because cars are the only item on which capital allowances are still claimed.
For most purposes it is now a car, but the dates differ by tax and that is where people come unstuck. For benefit in kind, HMRC has applied a primary suitability test since 6 April 2025, and because a double-cab is typically equally suited to passengers and goods it has no predominant suitability and is treated as a car. For capital allowances the same conclusion applies from 1 April 2025 for corporation tax and 6 April 2025 for income tax. The VAT treatment did not change. Critically, the transitional rules end at different times: benefit-in-kind protection can run to 5 April 2029, capital allowances protection ended on 1 October 2025.
Less than most trades expect, and not the things they expect. Bristol is in England, and the Construction Industry Scheme is UK-wide: 20% standard rate, 30% higher rate, the monthly return due by the 19th and the money by the 22nd. The VAT domestic reverse charge, the £90,000 registration threshold, Making Tax Digital, National Insurance, corporation tax and the £1,000,000 annual investment allowance are identical too. What changes is building safety — the Building Safety Levy applies here from 1 October 2026, though developments of fewer than 10 units are exempt, and the dutyholder and competence duties in SI 2023/911 apply to all building work — and the income tax on your profit, which is the UK rates — 20%, 40% and 45%, with the higher rate starting at £50,270 on a full personal allowance.
No. We act for trade businesses in Bristol and across the UK remotely — phone, WhatsApp, video and email, with records and approvals handled online. That is deliberate rather than a limitation, because what decides a trade's tax position is not local knowledge but knowing the scheme: whether the work is a construction operation within CIS, whether the payment is CIS-reportable, whether your customer has notified end user status in writing, whether the materials figure on your invoice will stand up, and whether you should have gross payment status. None of that is answered by being twenty minutes down the road. What being in England does change is building safety and, on income tax, uk bands: 20% / 40% / 45% — and we take that into account without needing an office here. The calculators on this site are free and need no conversation at all.
A free call about your CIS position, your VAT treatment and what is actually locked up. If we cannot save you anything, we will say so.
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