Claim a refund of Construction Industry Scheme deductions as a limited company
Get a refund of your Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions if you're a subcontractor and you've had more taken than you need to pay in tax.
How CIS refunds work
If you’re a subcontractor, your Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions are advance payments towards your company’s tax.
If the amount you’ve had deducted is higher than the amount your company needs to pay in tax, you need to make a claim.
After you claim, we’ll use your deductions to pay any overdue PAYE or Corporation Tax balances.
If there’s any money left over, you can:
- get a refund
- use it to pay VAT or upcoming Corporation Tax bills
Who can make a claim
You must:
- be a limited company subcontractor, or an agent representing one
- have had more CIS deductions taken than what you need to pay in tax
When you can claim
You can claim for a tax year once it has ended. A tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April.
For the past 6 tax years, you can claim online or by post.
For earlier tax years, you must claim by post.
You need to have submitted all:
- Full Payment Submissions (FPS) and Employer Payment Summaries (EPS)
- monthly CIS returns, if you’re also a contractor
- Company Tax returns
In some cases, you can claim a refund for the current tax year before it has ended. Read the section ‘Claiming for the current tax year’.
What you’ll need
Overpayment amount
You’ll need to tell us how much you overpaid in the tax year you’re claiming for. This is the total amount of CIS deductions taken, minus the total amount of tax paid using CIS deductions.
To work this out, use your:
- monthly Payment and Deduction statements
- FPS and EPS records
- monthly CIS returns, if you’re also a contractor
If you’re not sure, give us an estimate.
Company details
You’ll need your:
- company name, telephone number and address
- PAYE reference number
- Corporation Tax unique tax reference
Payment details
If you want us to pay the refund into a bank or building society account, tell us the:
- bank or building society name
- bank account number
- sort code
- account holder’s name
If you want us to pay an agent or nominated person, submit your claim with a completed form R38 or signed authority.
Evidence
We check if your information matches the information your contractor has given us. If it does not, we’ll ask you for copies of your:
- Payment and Deduction statements
- bank statements
If you know that the information does not match, you can include copies when you make your claim.
If you want to use your refund to pay another tax
To use your deductions to pay an upcoming Corporation Tax bill, tell us which accounting period you want to pay for.
To use your deductions to pay VAT, tell us:
- your VAT registration number
- how much VAT you want to pay
Claiming for the current tax year
You can only claim a refund for a tax year before it has ended, if either:
- your business has stopped trading
- you’ve had deductions taken after changing to gross payment status
Your claim must include copies of all Payment and Deduction statements and bank statements you’ve received this tax year.
Claim online
You need to use the sign in details linked to your Corporation Tax and PAYE accounts.
If you’re an agent, you need to use the details you use to sign in to your agent services account.
You can create an agent services account if you do not have one.
Claim by post
Send us a letter asking for a CIS repayment. Include the information listed in the section ‘What you’ll need’. Write ‘CIS’ on the envelope.
Where to send your written claim
PT Operations North East England
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1BX
United Kingdom
What happens next
After we get your claim, we check whether:
- the information you’ve given matches the information we have about you and that your contractor has given us
- you have any outstanding tax balances that your deductions must be used for
If your claim is incomplete or does not match our records, we may ask you for further information or evidence.
We’ll usually respond to your claim within 8 weeks.
You can check when you can expect a reply from HMRC.
If HMRC contacts you about a debt
If we contact you about a tax debt that you plan to use your CIS deductions to pay off, we may be able to pause the debt.
Contact Employers: general enquiries and tell them about your situation.
Change a claim
If you need to make changes or update a previously submitted claim, use the online form again and enter the correct details.
To amend your claim by post, send us a letter asking to change your CIS repayment claim. Write ‘CIS’ on the envelope. Include:
- the new overpayment amount
- details of your previous claim
Get help
If you have any questions, contact Employers: general enquiries.
Updates to this page
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Added information about how CIS refunds work, when you can claim, when evidence should be uploaded with a claim, how to use CIS deductions to pay another tax and what happens after a claim is submitted. Changed contact details to Employers: general enquiries.
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In the section 'Who can make a claim' a further bullet point was added to explain that you need to have submitted all relevant PAYE, CIS and Corporation Tax returns to claim a repayment.
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The section ‘For more information on the Construction Industry Scheme’ has been updated.
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A link has been added to find out when you can expect to receive a reply from HMRC to a query or request you've made.
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A new link has been added for claiming online. Information has been updated about what you'll need to do to claim by post.
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You now need to make claims for the current tax year by post and include related information to support your claim.
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The 'Contacts' section has been updated to include information about who to contact if you have a question about your CIS offset.
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Guidance on how to claim online has been updated.
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Information for agents making a claim has been added.
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The 'Claim online' section has been updated to include information about what may happen if you submit the return before the filing deadline.
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First published.