CIS, the VAT reverse charge, gross payment status, Making Tax Digital and payroll for Newcastle trade businesses. We only act for trades, and we work with you remotely.
The short version. Newcastle 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 Newcastle City Council.
Going from subcontract labour to a real employee is the point at which a Newcastle trade business becomes an employer, and 2026 is an expensive year to do it in. Employer National Insurance is 15% on earnings above a £5,000 secondary threshold — the rate rose from 13.8% and the threshold fell from £9,100 on the same day, 6 April 2025, which is what made that year a step change for small employers.
Against it sits the Employment Allowance at £10,500, up from £5,000, with the previous-year £100,000 secondary NIC eligibility cap removed. The exclusion that matters most: a company with a single director who is the only employee liable for secondary Class 1 NIC cannot claim. So a one-person limited company gets nothing — and taking on a first genuine employee often makes the allowance available for the first time, covering the employer NIC on both the new hire and the director's salary.
On a £32,000 joiner, employer NIC is 15% of £27,000 = £4,050, which the Employment Allowance covers in full in that situation. What it does not cover is 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday, the auto-enrolment pension, employers' liability insurance, tools, and the supervision time — which is the real cost of the hire.
Wage rates from 1 April 2026: £12.71 at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, £8.00 under 18 and £8.00 for apprentices — the apprentice rate applying only while the apprentice is under 19, or is 19 or over and in the first year. That step up at the first anniversary catches employers who set a rate at the start of a two-year apprenticeship and never revisit it.
And from 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay runs from day one with the lower earnings limit removed, paid at 80% of normal weekly earnings or £123.25 a week, whichever is lower. The government attributes most of the national cost increase to removing waiting days rather than the earnings limit — which is exactly the wrong shape for construction, where short one to three day absences are common and previously cost nothing.
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.
Not if you are a company whose single director is the only employee liable for secondary Class 1 National Insurance — that is an express exclusion. Only one company in a group, or in a connected group of charities, may claim, and off-payroll workers cannot be counted towards eligibility, nor domestic staff other than care and support workers. The practical consequence for a trade business is that taking on a first genuine employee can unlock the allowance for the first time, covering the employer NIC on both the new hire and the director's own salary. The previous-year £100,000 secondary NIC eligibility cap was removed on 6 April 2025.
Yes, for absences beginning on or after 6 April 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 removed both the three waiting days and the lower earnings limit, so statutory sick pay is payable from day one to all eligible employees regardless of earnings, at 80% of normal weekly earnings or £123.25 a week, whichever is lower. Absences that started before 6 April 2026 follow the old rules. This lands harder on construction than on most sectors because site absences are frequently one to three days, and those were precisely the absences that used to fall inside the waiting days and cost an employer nothing.
Less than most trades expect, and not the things they expect. Newcastle 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 Newcastle 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.
One short email: what has changed in CIS and construction VAT, the dates coming up, and one number worth checking on your own invoices. No spam, unsubscribe any time.