With just over three months until the new CIS goes live, both mainstream and deemed contractors are being urged to review their current systems and procedures to ensure compatibility with the new Scheme.

In the past couple of weeks, all contractors who operate the CIS will have received either a letter (for those with up to 125 subcontractors) or a CD-ROM (for those with over 125 subcontractors) listing all the subcontractors they have used since April and, most importantly, the subcontractors verification status under the new CIS.

It is vitally important that all CIS 25, 24 and 23 vouchers have been submitted to date, as the Revenue will conduct another ‘snapshot’ early next year which is likely to be the final review prior to ‘go-live’ in April. This is especially relevant for any CIS 6 subcontractors who have yet to submit their CIS 24 vouchers to the contractor for completion and forwarding to HMRC.

Another important aspect is that businesses that are deemed contractors by virtue of spending an average of £1m per annum on construction operations on property used by the business may be able to de-register from CIS altogether. There are some additional criteria that need to be met, but this will be an easing of the administration and compliance burden for a large number of deemed contractors. For further information please contact Dave Grimley for details.

In another twist, the Regulation permitting the easement of reporting has been expanded to include property that is for sale or let where it is purely incidental to the business of that person. Clarification is being sought from HMRC as to the exact criteria, and these will be advised during our January workshops. Please see below for details.

This page was last updated on Friday, January 04, 2008.