Getting started CIS self employment

tiptoes27

My son is 18 and still at college 1 day per week on a construction course. He has been looking for work and has been told he will need to register as self employed CIS. I have no experience of self employment and had ever heard of CIS before. He will be looking for work with a local builder and will probably start out as a labourer, continuing college part time
for a couple of years. Is this the norm in this type of industry and where can I find information about this that is simple to understand for a novice!! Just want to make sure we don't do anhting that could be to his disadvantage. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

whatatwit

Hi, go to the HMRC site and have a look, it holds loads of info on CIS

You have to register, as self employed and apply for a CIS card. This card is shown to the builder/employer who asks HMRC to confirm the identity of the employee/subcontractor. HMRC advises what rate of tax is to be deducted.
For a verified subcontractor, it's 20%, unverified it's 30%

Your son would receive his money net of 20% and also get a deductions statement each month confirming the amounts.

At the end of the tax year, your son would complete a self assessment tax return and any tax overpaid would be refunded to him or he would be sent a bill to pay.

Your son may manage to get a job where he is classed as en employee and taxed under PAYE, but often given the transient nature of the building industry, he may well remain self employed under the CIS system.

Bean_Counter

madcatwoman wrote: »

My son is 18 and still at college 1 day per week on a construction course. He has been looking for work and has been told he will need to register as self employed CIS. I have no experience of self employment and had ever heard of CIS before. He will be looking for work with a local builder and will probably start out as a labourer, continuing college part time
for a couple of years. Is this the norm in this type of industry and where can I find information about this that is simple to understand for a novice!! Just want to make sure we don't do anhting that could be to his disadvantage. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a finance director in the construction industry. If your son is working full time for one company as a labourer then he in all likelihood will be an employee and under the PAYE scheme. Hence he will not need to worry about PAYE.

There are many benefits of being an employee, such as holiday pay, sick pay and various other rights. Good luck finding a job, as the industry is going through a difficult time at the moment, as you have probably heard.

Feel free to contact me if you need more information.

mioliere

I was going to tell you what I have learned since my DH became a contractor in November but Whatatwit has covered it admirably!

Just so you know, CIS stands for Contractor Industry Scheme!

Elaine_Wilson

Just to clarify a small point. The CIS cards are no longer issued. What you get now is a letter detailing the UTR, etc. which should be shown to the contractor.

Otherwise the system works as explained.

tiptoes27

madcatwoman wrote: »

My son is 18 and still at college 1 day per week on a construction course. He has been looking for work and has been told he will need to register as self employed CIS. I have no experience of self employment and had ever heard of CIS before. He will be looking for work with a local builder and will probably start out as a labourer, continuing college part time
for a couple of years. Is this the norm in this type of industry and where can I find information about this that is simple to understand for a novice!! Just want to make sure we don't do anhting that could be to his disadvantage. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Further to my last post (above) my son has now found work with a local builder on a casual basis and is at college one day per week. He has worked nearly every day for the last six weeks and has registered for CIS as advised by the builder and is now waiting for his UTR number. I have been trying to find out information to help him with his Tax and NI but am finding it all a bit overwhelming. I have contacted CIS helpline and they passed me on to Self Employment helpline who told me about the training seminars they run. They only has one arranged in my area and that was last week when I was away (Typical!!). They will let me know when they are running some more later this year. In the meantime I would like to try and find out what sort of records I need to keep and what my son can claim for i.e tools, clothing, fares etc. never had any dealing with being self employed before and wonder if this is something that I will be able to manage for him or will i need an accountant? Many thanks