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United Kingdom

Starting a construction business in the UK

Sole trader or limited company, Companies House and HMRC, CIS and the VAT question, in the order they actually come up. These guides cover the choice, what each one costs to run, and the registrations that gate your first payment.

Click through it first

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

Open the demo business

No card, no form. Sign in later and everything you built stays on the same account.

5 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 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.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.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.

The rest of the United Kingdom library

The Construction Industry SchemeVAT for UK constructionGetting paid on UK constructionPricing construction work 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