Tradesmen accounting, handled.

If you operate as a sole trader, CIS deductions are offset against your Self-Assessment tax bill (and any excess refunded). If you trade through a limited company, the deductions are reclaimed against PAYE liabilities monthly through your payroll — most companies sit in net refund. We reconcile every CIS deduction to the contractor's CIS statement so nothing falls through the cracks.

Genuine protective clothing (safety boots, hi-vis, gloves) is deductible. Branded uniform with the company logo is deductible. General work clothes — jeans, a fleece, plain t-shirts — are not, even if you only wear them on site. The fixed laundry allowance HMRC publishes covers branded uniform washing. We keep your claim within HMRC's accepted limits so it survives an aspect enquiry.

If most of your work is for VAT-registered customers (commercial, developers, builders), voluntary registration lets you reclaim input VAT on your van, tools, and materials without your customers caring about the added VAT. If you mostly do private domestic work, every customer effectively gets a 20% price rise — usually wait until you must. We model both scenarios on your actual customer mix.

We handle the whole payroll under the monthly fee — RTI submissions to HMRC, payslips, P60s, apprenticeship levy where applicable, and the National Minimum Wage check that catches a lot of small employers out on apprentice age bands. You send hours, we send the payslip and the HMRC submission. Takes you about two minutes a month.

No — we send the professional clearance letter ourselves, request the prior-year accounts, CIS records, and trial balance, and badger them politely until they release everything. The vast majority of switches complete inside two weeks. You're on a rolling monthly contract, 30-day money-back, so there's no penalty if it doesn't work out.