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United Kingdom

Construction bookkeeping in the UK

Records that answer HMRC and tell you whether the month made money. These guides cover what to keep, what Making Tax Digital expects it to look like, and how a year of CIS deductions reconciles at the end of it.

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4 guides on this

After you qualifySole Trader or LimitedWhich structure leaves more in your hand at £48,000 and at £120,000 of profit, worked end to end on 2026-27 rates, plus the CIS cash-flow difference that decides it for most one-van subbies.How to run the businessSuspending for Non-PaymentSection 112 of the Construction Act lets an unpaid subcontractor stop work on seven days' notice, charge the payer for demobilising and remobilising, and take the lost programme time back. This is the notice, the preconditions in order, and the arithmetic counted from a real date.How to run the businessMTD for CIS SubcontractorsYour one Self Assessment return becomes four quarterly updates and a final declaration, and the test that catches you is turnover, not profit. Work out which step of the staircase you are on, what each update actually contains, and where your CIS deductions land.How to run the businessNo Lien, Four Routes InsteadEngland, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have no construction lien, no mechanics' lien and no holdback trust. This is the four routes that do work, ranked by how fast the money moves: suspension on seven days' notice under section 112, adjudication decided in 28 days under section 108, statutory interest and the fixed sum under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and the court routes with their real fees. Plus the three near-lien devices that exist in English law, a counted date sequence from 31 May 2026, and a decision table matching debt size, age and payer solvency to a route.

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The rest of the United Kingdom library

The Construction Industry SchemeVAT for UK constructionGetting paid on UK constructionPricing construction work in the UKStarting a construction business in the UKCSCS cards and site ticketsFinding construction work in the UKPayment notices and adjudication
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