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United Kingdom

The Construction Industry Scheme

CIS takes 20% off your labour before the money reaches you, 30% if you never registered, and nothing at all if you hold gross payment status. These guides cover registering, what comes out of a payment and what is left alone, claiming the deductions back at the end of the year, and what changes the day you start paying subcontractors of your own.

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Registration, tax, licensing and insurance in one tracked run. Open a business that is already through it and see where every document lands.

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10 guides on this

After you qualifySet up a UK companyIncorporation is one registration out of six, and the other five sit with HMRC. The whole sequence in order: what Companies House needs, what each HMRC registration is triggered by, what it costs, and the diary dates that follow.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.After you qualifyRegister for CISAn unregistered subcontractor has 30% taken off their labour instead of 20%, and the difference sits with HMRC until the tax return is filed. This is the registration that stops it, the UTR you need first, and how to keep a contractor's verification from putting you back on 30% anyway.How to run the businessCIS gross payment statusGross payment status means the main contractor pays your invoice in full instead of holding 20% of the labour. This is the business, turnover and compliance tests with the paragraph of Schedule 11 beside each one, the arithmetic on £180,000 of labour a year, and the 90 days and 30 days that decide what happens if HMRC moves to cancel.How to run the businessClaim CIS deductions backA subcontractor paid under deduction hands HMRC 20% of every pound of labour before a single expense is counted. This is both routes to getting it back, sole trader through box 38 of the Self Assessment return and limited company through the Employer Payment Summary month by month, with the arithmetic worked end to end and the filing detail that decides whose record the money lands on.How to run the businessBecome a CIS contractorThe first time you pay someone else for construction work you become a CIS contractor. Register before that payment, verify through HMRC, work the deduction off labour only, issue the statement within 14 days and file the CIS300 by the 19th, including the nil return that came back on 6 April 2026.How to run the businessVAT reverse chargeThe exact wording HMRC accepts on a reverse charge invoice, the six conditions that switch it on, why CIS takes materials out of the deduction while the reverse charge keeps them in, and how to pull your input VAT back a month faster.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 businessCost of going self-employedAn itemised 2026 setup bill in pounds, from the £36 CSCS card to the van, plus the month by month cash flow that shows why you need about £10,000 behind you before the first application gets paid.How to run the businessWhat an hour costs youTake a £280 day rate apart: 185 billable days, £15,220 of van, tools and pension, and £30,337 landing at £14.45 an hour. Then see what a priced job does to the same year.

Count it instead of estimating it

CIS deduction calculatorLabour and materials in. The deduction at 20%, 30% and 0%, with materials and plant hire stripped out of the base first.Free, no signup.VAT reverse charge calculatorSix conditions decide whether you charge VAT at all. Answer them and the page builds the invoice, CIS deduction and all.Free, no signup.
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The rest of the United Kingdom library

VAT for UK constructionGetting paid on UK constructionPricing construction work in the UKStarting a construction business in the UKConstruction bookkeeping in the UKCSCS cards and site ticketsFinding construction work in the UKPayment notices and adjudication
Every guideThe whole United Kingdom libraryAfter you qualify