What is the CIS Scheme?
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
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All You Need To Know About The CIS Scheme
The Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) is a tax deduction scheme that involves tax being deducted at a source from payments which relate to construction work. The deductions count as advance payments towards the subcontractor’s tax and National Insurance.
To benefit from the CIS scheme, both subcontractors and contractors must register for it. It’s not compulsory for subcontractors to register, but deductions will be taken from their payments at a higher rate if they’re not.
How much is the CIS deduction?
If you’re not registered with the CIS scheme, you will have 30% tax deducted from your salary. However, if you are registered with the scheme, the amount of tax deducted from your salary will be 20%, so it can definitely pay to be CIS registered.
Who counts as a contractor or subcontractor?
You count as a contractor or subtractor if:
- You pay subcontractors for construction work
- Your business doesn’t do construction work but you spend an average of more than £1 million a year on construction in any 3-year period
Do I qualify?
You’ll be pleased to hear that CIS covers most construction work including: a permanent or temporary building structure, civil engineering work like roads or bridges, preparing the site e.g. laying foundations and providing access works, demolition and dismantling, building work, alterations, repair and decorating, installing heating systems, lighting, power, water and ventilation and cleaning the inside of buildings after construction.
Speak To An Expert
CIS can help you get a mortgage
In order to reduce your tax liability, your bookkeeper or accountant will usually advise you to record all business-related expenses. However, this can pose problems when it comes to trying to obtain a mortgage as banks will use your net profit after expenses to calculate how much you can borrow. This yields a much lower borrowing figure compared to what is typically offered to someone employed as a full-time employee.
The reason banks and some mortgage brokers act in this manner is that they simply do not understand your status. On the flip side, our experts understand your status completely and will calculate how much you can borrow based on your daily rate of pay, rather than the profit you show the taxman after your expenses. They can also achieve a better level of borrowing, by placing your mortgage with a lender familiar with the CIS Scheme.
Contact our CIS mortgage advisers now, for an instant decision, or see how much you can borrow on a mortgage.
How can I register for the CIS scheme?
If you’re not registered for the CIS scheme and want to register, you will need to contact HMRC directly.
Contracting for less than one year?
If you’ve only recently become a contractor and have been doing it for less than a year, not to worry – we can help you.
Most other brokers, and banks struggle to find a mortgage suitable for someone who has a continuous record as a CIS subcontractor running for less than 12 months. But this isn’t a problem for our team. Where others may have failed you, we are confident we can find a suitable mortgage after you complete our initial fee-free no-obligation telephone assessment.
Based on our specialist understanding of the CIS Scheme, our expert mortgage advisers can present a good case to the mortgage underwriters on your behalf.
Don’t delay, contact us now for your CIS mortgage assessment.
Useful Links
We Say Yes To CIS
- Less than 1 year self-employed
- 5% Deposit
- Less than 3 years in the UK
- High day-rate with low net profit