Bookkeeping for Small Business

Construction Industry Scheme

Posted on 05/09/2025 by Alison Harrison

CIS (Construction Industry Scheme)

You must tell HM Revenue and Customs each month about payments you’ve made to subcontractors through your monthly return.

You need to send your monthly returns or submit them online to HM Revenue and Customs by the 19th of every month following the last tax month.

You must pay HM Revenue and Customs every month by the 22nd (or the 19th if you’re paying by post). You may be charged interest and penalties if you pay late.

Pay CIS deductions to HMRC in the same way as PAYE and National Insurance payments.

When do I need to submit my VAT return?

Posted on 01/08/2025 by Alison Harrison

You usually submit a VAT Return to HM Revenue and Customs every 3 months.

Action Deadline

Submit Online VAT return 7 calendar days after the standard deadline – extended deadline

Payment Online 7 calendar days after the standard deadline – extended deadline

Payment by DDM 3 bank working days after the extended deadline

For example:

Return period Paper return Online return Pay online Pay by DDM

30 April 31 May 7 June 7 June 10 June

Is your company dormant?

Posted on 04/12/2023 by Alison Harrison

Dormant Companies are defined in 2 different ways by Companies House and HMRC:

A Dormant company at Companies House is if any transaction goes through the business, then you are not dormant. There are exceptions to this such as paying the fee for the Confirmation Statement, changes to shareholding etc. meaning if you have bank charges going through when you haven’t made any sales, then your company is not dormant.

HMRC state that if you are not trading then you are dormant meaning if you have don’t have any trading income or expenses you are classed as dormant with them.

If you have any further questions about dormant companies then please let us know.

When to incorporate

Posted on 30/11/2023 by Cathy Shults

This is a question we get asked frequently. Currently sole traders have to pay personal tax on their profits, Class 2 national insurance on profits over £50,000 at 2% and Class 4 national insurance on profits between £9,501 and £50,000 at 9%. Sole traders have to pay a payment on account if their annual tax bill exceeds £1000.

Limited companies do not have to pay payments on account or national insurance but have to pay 100% of their corporation tax 9 months and 1 day after the year end at a rate of 19% on profits.

Limited companies can have shareholders unlike soletraders. When taking the combined personal tax and corporation tax liability for limited companies vs tax and national insurance for soletraders, the rough tipping point is if you have profits of £12,000 or more, it could work out to be more efficient for tax purposes to be a limited company.

Are you being chased by HMRC when you think it shouldn’t be?

Posted on 27/11/2023 by Alison Harrison

Are HMRC chasing you regarding PAYE, Corporation Tax, personal tax or an underpayment of any tax? If the answer is yes if you give us a copy of the correspondence we can have a look at it for you and liaise with HMRC for you to resolve the issue.