What you must do as a Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) contractor (2024)

Before you can pay a new subcontractor, you’ll need to ‘verify’ them with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

HMRC will tell you:

• whether they’re registered for the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
• what rate of deduction to use or if you can pay them without making deductions

You must also verify subcontractors you’ve used before if you have not included them on a CIS return in the current or last 2 tax years.

How to verify

You can verify subcontractors using:

• the free HMRC CIS online service
• commercial CIS software

If you need to verify more than 50 subcontractors you’ll need to use commercial CIS software.

What you’ll need

Make sure you have:

• your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
• the reference number for your HMRC accounts office
• your HMRC employer reference

You’ll also need your subcontractor’s:

• UTR
• National Insurance number if they’re a sole trader - you cannot verify temporary numbers, which start with ‘TN’ or 2 digits
• company name, company UTR and registration number if they’re a limited company
• nominated partner details, trading name and partnership UTR if they’re a partnership

The details you provide to verify the subcontractor must exactly match the details the subcontractor used to register with HMRC.

View a printable version of the whole guide