Under the Construction Industry Scheme, your contractor takes 20% tax off every payment before it reaches you — 30% if you are not registered. That deduction is a blunt instrument: it ignores your expenses, your personal allowance and your real tax position.
Across a full tax year, that almost always means you have paid HMRC more than you owe. Tools, van and mileage, materials, protective clothing, phone and a proportion of home costs are all allowable — and every pound of allowable expense is tax the deduction did not account for.
The fix is straightforward: reconcile your CIS statements against your actual costs, claim every allowable expense properly, and file. The average refund we recover for subcontractors is over £2,000. If you should be on gross payment status, we can help you get there too.
Have this question yourself? Talk to an adviser.