Registering for Self Employment and CIS

You will initially have to register as self employment. HMRC will then issue you a 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR).

You also need to register as a subcontractor for CIS (Construction Industry Scheme). Contractors you work for will use your UTR to verify you for the 20% deduction rate. If you don’t register for CIS, you will suffer 30% tax deductions from contractors.

Until you decide not to do any self employed work at all, you can stay registered as self employed. Your tax return will include your self employment and employment income for the year, and you will also need to show what PAYE you have suffered and what CIS has been deducted.

You do not need to deregister as self employed every time a contract comes to an end. But HMRC will expect a tax return from you annually, until you advise them that you have cased self employment entirely.

Your local TaxAssist Accountant would be happy to prepare your tax return for you. Please contact your local office for more information.

Date published 3 Aug 2018 | Last updated 22 May 2020

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.