What you need to do:

1. Register for HMRC’s online service and enrol for self-employment
2. You’ll get your Government Gateway ID (by email) and your UTR number (by post)
3. Register for CIS at HMRC’s website using your Government Gateway ID
4. Choose your CIS payment status – net pay or gross pay
5. You’re done

If you don’t register for CIS, your contractor will send 30% of your pay to HMRC, instead of 20%.

You can read more about registering for CIS here

The only things we need from you are:

• CIS payslips from your contractor
• any receipts related to expenses that you want to claim and your UTR number

Here is how you get your UTR

There are a ton of CIS deductions you can use to increase your rebate:

• your own tools and equipment, plus their repair – anything that is not already provided by your contractor, and which you bought for work
• transport (including your own driving), meals at the contractor’s site
• mobile phone bills, Builders Liability Insurance premiums
• plus a few allowances: home office allowance, the mileage allowance, etc

You can read more about these CIS deductions here

One very important thing to keep in mind: if your expenses are under £1,000, don’t bother with them – just claim £1,000 as a flat, tax-free allowance. All self-employed people can use it.

You can claim your transport in one of these two ways:

• do you use your car for work 75% of the time? Then you can claim 75% of leasing, fuel, car insurance, road tax, etc. Pretty good if you bought the van just for work. Or,
• you can simply use HMRC’s simplified expense rate called “the mileage allowance“: it starts at 45p a mile. Better if you owned the van already and if you drive for work often.

Read more about the mileage allowance here

If you can’t find your receipts, don’t worry.

You can still claim a flat £1,000 allowance (called “the Trading Allowance”) so you can increase your CIS tax refund.

For most people, this is actually more than their expenses anyway, and we help you claim it all within our app.

Read more about the Trading Allowance here