CIS, the VAT reverse charge, gross payment status, Making Tax Digital and payroll for Nottingham trade businesses. We only act for trades, and we work with you remotely.
The short version. Nottingham 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 Nottingham City Council.
The single most common mis-rating in the trades is treating an extension as if it were new build. It is not: an extension or alteration to an existing occupied dwelling is standard rated at 20%, however new the structure is and however much it looks like new build from the scaffold. Zero-rating applies to the construction of a new building, and adding to an existing one is an alteration.
Zero-rating a new dwelling has four conditions and all of them must hold: self-contained living accommodation, no direct internal access to any other dwelling, construction in accordance with statutory planning consent, and no prohibition on separate use or disposal. That last one catches annexes constantly, because planning consent commonly prevents an annexe being sold or let separately from the main house — and then the whole job is standard rated. On an £80,000 annexe, that is £16,000 nobody quoted for.
Three routes to 5%: a changed number of dwellings conversion, where the number of single household dwellings after the work differs from before, up or down; a non-residential to residential conversion where the premises were never used residentially or have not been for ten years or more; and the renovation of a dwelling empty for two years or more, evidenced by Electoral Roll data, Council Tax records or a certificate from the local authority's Empty Property Officer. Get that evidence before you price at 5%, not after.
Then the dated one. The installation of energy-saving materials in residential accommodation is zero-rated from 1 May 2023 to 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027. It is a hard cliff edge and the most time-sensitive VAT item facing the trades: a heat pump or solar contract signed now for spring 2027 delivery straddles it, and on a £14,000 installation the five points is £700 that the contract needs to allocate. Batteries for storing electricity, smart diverters, water source heat pumps and groundworks for heat pump pipework were all added to the qualifying list on 1 February 2024. The relief applies only where the materials are installed — supply-only is standard rated.
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.
No. An extension or alteration to an existing occupied dwelling is standard rated at 20%, regardless of how new the structure is. Zero-rating applies to the construction of a new building designed as a dwelling, a building for a relevant residential purpose, or one for a relevant charitable purpose — and adding to an existing building is legally an alteration rather than a new building. This is the most common mis-rating in the sector, and on an £80,000 extension quoted as if it were zero-rated the missing VAT is £16,000. Rate the job before you quote it, because the rate is a pricing input rather than an invoicing detail.
It ends on 31 March 2027 and reverts to the 5% reduced rate from 1 April 2027. The installation of energy-saving materials in residential accommodation has been zero-rated since 1 May 2023, and this is a dated reversion rather than a proposal — which makes it the most time-sensitive VAT item facing the trades. Any contract signed now for a spring 2027 installation straddles the date, so it should state the rate applied and what happens if the tax point falls on or after 1 April 2027. On a £14,000 installation the five points is £700, and in a fixed-price contract with no VAT clause the installer absorbs it.
Less than most trades expect, and not the things they expect. Nottingham 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 Nottingham 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.