We explain how you can register your business as a contractor for CIS. When do you need to register as a contractor with HMRC?
Many businesses find the construction industry particularly confusing. One such area is that of who is a contractor and what their obligations are.
Registration as a contractor is compulsory if you meet certain criteria. We will define when these conditions are met and provide links on how you can easily register as a contractor.
You MUST register for CIS as soon as the business becomes a contractor.
A business who carries out construction work becomes a contractor when they either:
1) They take on subcontractors to perform some of the contract work,
2) Or when their average annual spend on construction operations over a 3 year period exceeds over £1 million.
If either of the above apply you must register as a CIS contractor.
A private household having construction work done on their home is not a business As a result they are not contractors.
Therefore if they appoint someone to do construction work it does not fall within CIS.
Registering as a contractor is the same process as setting up a payroll scheme.
This HMRC link will take you through to the HMRC website where you can register as a contractor for CIS and for payroll (if required).
When the HMRC website page opens, scroll down to the bottom of the page and it should look like the image below.
The top link labelled ‘start now’ can be used for Limited companies which have 9 or less Directors.
The bottom link labelled ‘next’ can be used by all other businesses including soletraders, partnerships and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
Both links will then ask a series of questions. Typically at the end of the process you will be requested to create a HMRC online account.
At Patterson Hall Chartered Accountants we try to relieve as much of the admin burden as we possibly can for our clients.
Any existing client or new client who requires registration for any HMRC service including CIS can be registered by ourselves. Unlike many of our competitors we do not charge any extra for providing this service.
The reason for this is that as experts in these services and with agent access to HMRC software we can complete registrations very quickly. We actually prefer to register our clients as we often find doing it ourselves is much easier and quicker.
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