Issues with the CIS

As a contractor in the construction industry you must submit online monthly reports of the payments you make to subcontractors (CIS reports). But before you pay a subbie you need to verify with HMRC whether they should be paid net or gross. This verification can be done by phone or online.

If you use the free HMRC software to submit your CIS reports, you may have experienced the following problems.

Subbies missing

You shouldn’t have to re-verify subbies you pay regularly, but the HMRC computer automatically deletes any subbies you haven’t verified for two years or more.

The solution is to re-verify the subbies concerned using the online system.

If you use the telephone service for verification of subbies, then manually enter the details of that firm in the online CIS return, those subbie’s details will disappear on submission of the CIS return. By verifying the subbies online, the details of those firms will be included automatically in your online CIS return.

Time out message

This can happen if you have paid a large number of subcontractors. Try deleting the subbies you no longer pay regularly.

New subcontractors

If you make a mistake when choosing the category of subcontractor (eg, self- employed or company) when inputting those details on the CIS online service, there is no way to correct that detail. You need to delete the whole record and start again.

All of these problems can be avoided by using commercial software to submit your CIS returns. We can do this on your behalf.