Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)

CIS, from both sides of the invoice.

If a contractor takes CIS off what you are paid, it is your own tax, paid early, and what is over comes back. If you pay subcontractors, a return is due every tax month, whether you paid anyone or not. Here is what each side has to do, with HMRC’s own dates, and what Stoneledger does about it.

I’m paid under CIS I pay subcontractors

If you are paid under CIS

It is your tax, paid early. Here is how it comes back.

What comes off

A contractor takes 20% if you are registered for CIS and they can verify you, 30% if either is missing, and nothing at all if you hold gross payment status. It comes off your labour: never off the VAT, or off materials you paid for yourself.

Your statements

For every tax month a contractor takes CIS off you, they must give you a payment and deduction statement within 14 days of its end. A tax month runs from the 6th to the 5th. If one does not come, ask for it: it is your proof the tax was taken.

Getting it back

As a sole trader or partner, the deductions are set against your tax and National Insurance for the year, and anything over is repaid. Under Making Tax Digital, HMRC adds them to your tax return for you to check, and you request a repayment in your HMRC online services account once the return has gone. A limited company sets them against its PAYE on its monthly Employer Payment Summary.

How much might come back? The free CIS refund checker works it out from a few figures, and HMRC explains the scheme in its guide for subcontractors.

What Stoneledger does for a subcontractor

What has been taken off you, and what comes back, always in view.

Labour and materials, split on every invoice. The deduction at gross, 20% or 30%, worked on the labour only.
Turnover stays gross. A deduction is not a cost: it is your own tax, paid early, and your figures say so.
Every statement checked against your invoices and the payments that came in. A statement that has not come, a wrong rate or materials that do not add up is flagged.
What you are owed, and when. What has come off you so far this tax year, what that means for your bill, and the dates it comes back.
Retention tracked from the invoice until it is released, with the CIS on the release at the rate on the day.
Every figure opens. Click the CIS taken off you and see every payment it came off.

Stoneledger's subcontractor screen: what has been taken off you this tax year, what that means for your bill, and when it comes back — **What you’re owed, and when** · Sole trader sample book

If you pay subcontractors

A return every tax month, even when nobody was paid.

Before the first payment

Register as a contractor, then verify each new subcontractor with HMRC, which tells you the rate to deduct. Verify again anyone who has not been on one of your returns this tax year or in the last two.

Every tax month

Deduct at that rate from the labour, pay it to HMRC by the 22nd (the 19th if you pay by post), and give each subcontractor you deducted from a payment and deduction statement within 14 days of the end of the tax month.

The CIS300, by the 19th

Your monthly return reaches HMRC by the 19th after each tax month ends: a nil return if you paid nobody, unless you have told HMRC you are inactive. A day late costs £100, two months late another £200, and six months late another £300 or 5% of the deductions, whichever is higher.

Keep the gross of each payment, the deductions and the materials for at least three years after the end of the tax year they belong to: HMRC can fine up to £3,000 if they cannot be shown. HMRC sets it all out in its guide for contractors.

What Stoneledger does for a contractor

The return, the statements and your books, from the same invoices.

Every subcontractor on file with their UTR, verification number and rate, and anything a return needs flagged before the month closes, not after.
The CIS300 from the payments made in the tax month, which is what HMRC’s return asks for, not the invoices dated in it.
Every tax month, nil returns included, with its due date and the penalty building up if one is late.
Prepared kept apart from submitted, because only a return that has reached HMRC stops a penalty.
A statement for every subcontractor you paid, from the same figures as the return, issued and kept in the Statement Outbox.
Retention and records. What you hold back, invoice by invoice, and the day you can stop keeping each year’s records.

Stoneledger's CIS300 monthly returns: each tax month with its due date, amounts paid and deducted, and which returns are late with the penalty so far — **A CIS300 for every tax month** · Sole trader sample book

Paid under CIS and paying subcontractors too? You register with HMRC as both, and Stoneledger keeps both sides in one book. See the contractor screens

What it costs

£8 a month or £50 a year, both sides of CIS included.

One plan, with everything in it: the books, both sides of CIS, VAT, your Self Assessment or Corporation Tax, payroll and journals. No price that jumps the day you take on a subcontractor. 30 days free, no card needed. How that compares

Both sides of CIS, worked out from your own invoices.

The deductions, the returns, the statements and what comes back, kept together so they always agree, and every figure opens onto the payments behind it.