There are two construction training boards in the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland has its own. Different statute, different threshold, different rate and a different definition of what the rate is applied to. The threshold is the part that matters: £80,000 here against £150,000 in Great Britain.
CITB NI is a statutory training board set up in 1964 under its own Northern Irish legislation. It is not the Northern Irish office of the CITB that operates in England, Scotland and Wales — it is a separate body with its own levy, its own grants and its own return. If you employ people on construction work in Northern Ireland, it is CITB NI you deal with.
That matters more than it sounds, because a trade business of a size that pays nothing in Great Britain can be paying here.
CITB NI applies the levy rate to two things added together:
If those two together come to £80,000 or more, the rate is applied to the whole figure and you get a levy bill. Below £80,000 no levy is due — but you still have to complete and return the annual form.
CITB NI consults employer bodies each year and sets the rate annually. It was 0.55% for each of the six training years from 2020/21 to 2025/26. The rate for 2026/27 had not been published when this page was written, so no figure for it is quoted here.
On CITB NI's own worked example, £120,000 of PAYE earnings plus £80,000 of labour-only subcontractor earnings is £200,000, and at 0.55% the levy is £1,100.
The GB scheme is not the same calculation with different numbers. It is a different base:
| CITB NI | CITB (England, Scotland, Wales) | |
|---|---|---|
| Exemption | Below £80,000 | Below £150,000 |
| Partial relief | None | 50% reduction from £150,000 to £499,999 |
| Payroll rate | 0.55% for 2020/21 to 2025/26 | 0.35% |
| Subcontractors charged | Labour-only subcontractors, on gross emoluments | Net paid CIS subcontractors, at 1.25% |
| Gross paid CIS subcontractors | Within the labour-only test | No levy |
| Labour agencies | Not named as an exclusion | No levy |
Read the fourth row carefully if you run crews on both sides. Great Britain charges 1.25% on net paid CIS subcontractors and nothing on gross paid ones, so putting a subcontractor onto gross payment status removes them from the GB levy entirely. Northern Ireland charges on labour-only subcontractors who are not CITB NI levy payers themselves, which is a different test, and gross payment status does not answer it.
The training year runs from 1 September to 31 August. The annual return has to go in whether or not you are over the threshold. Miss the deadline and you cannot claim grant for that training year at all, which for a firm putting apprentices through cards and tickets is usually worth considerably more than the levy.
There is an appeals process against that decision, so if you have missed it, it is worth appealing rather than writing the year off. CITB NI publish the appeals process map and policy and can be reached on 028 9082 5466.
We have an office at Unit 13:62 Fenaghy Road, Ballymena, Co. Antrim, BT42 1FL, and Northern Ireland is our largest base. You can come in and sit down with somebody by appointment, or do the whole thing by phone, video and WhatsApp like most people do. 07476 989568.
If we run your payroll we already hold the figures the levy return asks for, which turns an annual scramble into a form we fill in. Payroll is priced separately from the monthly fee.
If the gross emoluments of your PAYE staff working in Northern Ireland, plus the gross emoluments of labour-only subcontractors working in Northern Ireland who are not CITB NI levy payers themselves, come to £80,000 or more, then yes. Below that no levy is due. Either way you must still complete the annual return and send it in before the deadline, because the return is what establishes the exemption and it is also what protects your ability to claim grant.
They are separate boards with separate levies, and each one is charged on the wage bill for work in its own territory. CITB NI applies its rate to earnings for work in Northern Ireland; the GB scheme applies its rates to your payroll and net paid CIS subcontractors there. So a firm working both sides can be within both schemes, each on its own slice of the wage bill, rather than paying twice on the same money. If your split is not obvious from your payroll records it is worth getting it recorded properly before the returns are due.
It had not been published when this page was written. CITB NI set the rate annually after consulting employer bodies, and their own levy page showed 2026/27 as still to be confirmed. The rate was 0.55% in each of the six training years from 2020/21 to 2025/26, so that is the figure to plan against, but it is not a published rate for 2026/27 and we will not present it as one. Check citbni.org.uk or ask us and we will check it with you.
You lose the ability to claim grant for that training year, which is usually the expensive part — for a firm putting people through cards, tickets and apprenticeships the grant is typically worth more than the levy itself. The levy assessment still stands. CITB NI do operate an appeals process against the grant decision and publish both an appeals process map and an appeals policy, so a missed return is worth appealing rather than accepting.