CITB Construction skills

Lifeisbutadream

I hope that someone can help me?

I have received a letter this morning from CITB Construction SKills asking me for a whopping £1234.00.. :eek:

Apparantly because I have paid employees and subcontractors more than £80K, I have to pay a % to CITB????

I simply cannot believe this! I cant afford it and I dont see why I should pay? I get less than that from them in payments for our Apprentice and the whole reason that we signed up with them was to get the payments for the Apprenitice.

I feel like if you do everything 'by the book' you just get stung for more and more money.

I wont pay this. I dont care what they do. They way I feel at the moment they can take the fcking lot. Whats the point of working?

(sorry for the rant I am a little bit upset..:()

DCodd

The problem you have is that you have registered with them i.e. applied for a grant.

I'm not sure about current regulations regarding the CITB levy but they used to be able to impose 0.5% levy on direct employee wages and 1.5% on labour only subbies, all to be paid by the employer, however "THE EMPLOYER" is a bit of an anomaly as a subbie can't be employed by a third party.

Lifeisbutadream

DCodd wrote: »

The problem you have is that you have registered with them i.e. applied for a grant.

I'm not sure about current regulations regarding the CITB levy but they used to be able to impose 0.5% levy on direct employee wages and 1.5% on labour only subbies, all to be paid by the employer, however "THE EMPLOYER" is a bit of an anomaly as a subbie can't be employed by a third party.

I never wanted the grant. They tricked me into signing up saying that if I didnt I would get this 'Levy'. We certainly get much less 'grant' than they are expecting me to pay.

They are trying to charge me 0.5% on the Employee and 1.5% for subbies.

I am not paying it. I might as well just give them my cash card and pin number for the amount that I pay out in taxes. They are taking the P.

On a side note, we have just gone from a Partnership to a Ltd Company, so the company they are trying to charge doesnt actually exist any more. Can they still try and get the moeny from the new company, or is that a legitimate way of me not paying it? (the alternative is for me to just not pay it, which, out of principle, I will not do.

Lifeisbutadream

How do they work out these ridiculous charges anyway? it isnt even based on profit! some of our work might be £500 paid to the subbie and just £20 or £30 to us - we pay tax on that already, so they might even end up getting more money than we actuially make???

(sorry can you tell I am a little bit mad )

withabix

You are employing people in the construction industry.

Why shouldn't you pay the levy just the same as anyone else in the same position?

leveller2911

Hi Lifesbut,
If your in FSB you could give them a ring for some advice.....Ive wanted to take on an apprentice for a few years now but because of the regulations and costs involved its just not worth it....Sad but true.

Lifeisbutadream

withabix wrote: »

You are employing people in the construction industry.

Why shouldn't you pay the levy just the same as anyone else in the same position?

Because I had no idea about it. Nobody told me and I did not make enough profit last year to cover it. Had I known about it I would have not made a few £'s here and there on subbies and kept the total amount below £80K.

It is a tax on a tax with a made up way of deciding how much people pay.

I wont pay it. They can have my business along with everything left in the bank account. I have had enough of working for nothing.

Lifeisbutadream

leveller2911 wrote: »

Hi Lifesbut,
If your in FSB you could give them a rings for some advice.....Ive wanted to take on an apprentice for a few years now but because of the regulations and costs involved its just not worth it....Sad but true.

We are in FMB I might give them a ring.

Do not take on an Apprentice. It has cost us a fortune in time, money and stress. It isnt worth it and yes I agree it is very sad.

Bean_Counter

Have you checked the calculation to make sure that it is correct? The levy should only be charged on labolur-only subbies, so might be worth checking to see if yours are really supply & fix.

Also you can pay by instalments, I believe. Finally are there any other grants you can claim?

DCodd

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

How do they work out these ridiculous charges anyway? it isnt even based on profit! some of our work might be £500 paid to the subbie and just £20 or £30 to us - we pay tax on that already, so they might even end up getting more money than we actuially make???

(sorry can you tell I am a little bit mad )

What services do you actually supply? Depending on that depends on whether you are required to pay the levy. Are you CIS registered and are your subbies?

If you are required to pay the levy then I would reagrd it as a cost of sale and it would be tax deductable against corp tax.

Lifeisbutadream

DCodd wrote: »

What services do you actually supply? Depending on that depends on whether you are required to pay the levy. Are you CIS registered and are your subbies?

If you are required to pay the levy then I would reagrd it as a cost of sale and it would be tax deductable against corp tax.

Yes we are CIS registered and it is likely that the cost of subbies is labour only.

The total amount is £87K - if I had known about this thieving 'tax on a tax' I would have not done some of the work that we did (some of the work I arrange is literally just a few £'s - certainly not worth having this extra payment)

Do you know whether I can not pay it because of out company closing down or is it like HMRC and they can do anything they like?

(as I said I am not paying is whatever, but I suppose it would make my life easier if I could legitimately not pay it!)