Limited company tax basics for professional contractors

Our current building and construction clients range from contractors and tradespeople to family-owned businesses and large construction firms. Our team of experts can help you to protect your business and keep on top of the industry’s common requirements. As you may already be aware, depending on how long you have been active in construction, the industry is a fast-paced one and there are regular updates and changes to the legislation, rules and regulations. The CIS sets out how your business must pay self-employed workers and make deductions towards their tax and NIC contributions. It is particularly complicated where there is a contractor and subcontractor relationship.

• This means that as far as employment rights go, they have very little protection under employment law.
• But taking on extra people, or paying a night rate, has an impact on your costs and margins.
• Thankfully, one area which needn’t cause undue stress is creating a website to promote your business.
• This can make tracking expenses and calculating profits on each service more difficult.
• Dividend income is then taxed at three rates – 8.75% , 33,75% and 39.35% .
• A real-world social network will help you take on larger jobs, and you’ll be able to share work and refer each other to customers.

He fits granite worktops in different premises every day, but for Great Granite Ltd. His contractor sends his job sheets by email and delivers granite directly to the site for Luke to fit. All of Luke’s travel expenses should be deductible (even though some jobs take him several days or weeks to complete – for example if he is fitting out a hotel).

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT

There are two components of the Construction Industry Scheme , one is being a ‘contractor’ and one being a ‘subcontractor’. No – you should only pay tax under the CIS if you are genuinely self-employed. Not everyone who works in the construction industry is self-employed. real estate bookkeeping If you work in the construction industry, you should consider your employment status in the same way as everyone else. As a small business, you can also take this opportunity to follow up on any outstanding invoices that haven’t been paid or are overdue.

We’ve put together this video to give guidance on how to account for them. CIS works on a cash basis and so will only be suffered on monies actually received. This means that you don’t pay over the VAT to HMRC until the retention is invoiced/ received at a later date. If you’re interested you can https://www.scoopearth.com/the-importance-of-retail-accounting-in-improving-inventory-management/ check out the HMRC guidance for this here. Note When entering pension in a numeric format please use the same frequency as you used to enter your gross salary. E.g. if you specified an annual gross salary, the amount entered in the pension box will be for your annual pension contributions .

How is construction accounting different?

So accountants will advise and prompt, but they won’t make decisions – the contractor/director must do this. Alternatively, a contractor could use a company formation agent, accountant or even solicitor to set up the company for them, and naturally the cost https://azbigmedia.com/real-estate/how-do-real-estate-accounting-services-improve-clients-finances/ of such professional services will be more expensive. HMRC has provided a list of software that can record and submit tax information. Several top choices, including Xero, Sage, FreeAgent, KashFlow and Crunch also integrate with Tide business bank accounts.

• It’s how you see where money is coming in and where money is going out.
• Also, if you work from home, you can claim a certain portion of household bills as business expenses.
• The needs of construction work mean different kinds of accounting processes need to be used.
• If you are a registered subcontractor and approved for gross payment status, then no deductions should be made under the CIS.
• If you are looking for advice on how to proceed further in this arena, get in touch with a good accountant company such as CloudCo Group.
• When third parties review finances, the main basis for their decision-making is typically a construction firm’s working capital ratio—the central indicator of the health of your business finances.

You may well ask whether you have to set up a limited company at all. We’ve written a guide to help distinguish between these two trading structures. Many freelancers work as self-employed, otherwise known as sole-traders.

Change your accounting period to reduce your tax bill?

Specialist accountants or chief financial officers have a deep understanding of the nature of construction accounting. Savvy construction executives use the information on these final accounts—most notably the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows—to drive decisions and chart a course for the company’s future. The item on lease is allocated into the balance sheet as an asset with depreciation charges against it. This guide will help you save money and pay less tax giving you the information on what you could be claiming as a business expenses and how to claim it.