CISR42730 - Register and maintain subcontractor: the registration process: joint concerns / ventures

| CISR42000 | Information contents | |—————————————————————————————————–|———————-|

Guidance on the different types of joint concerns / ventures is at CISR43190, this describes the different types of body that joint concerns may be, and an information guide on the registration process and Joint Ventures is at CISR42100.

Before registering a Joint Venture for CIS you must obtain the Joint Venture agreement (or the relevant parts of it) from the applicant, and examine it for evidence that there is a separate entity in existence apart from the businesses that have entered into the Joint Venture.

Within Joint Venture agreements you sometimes may see a clause which says ‘This agreement does not create a partnership, joint venture or other legal entity amongst any of the parties’, such a clause does not mean that in reality a partnership does not exist and you should look for the following evidence;

  • has a Joint Venture bank account has been opened?
  • are Partnership accounts to be drawn up for the Joint Venture, or in the case of a Joint Venture which is itself incorporated, will Corporation Tax accounts be drawn up?
  • does (or will) the Joint Venture have it’s own workforce? (this is not conclusive evidence as sometimes the parties that make up the Joint Venture will use their own respective workforce. But if there is a separate workforce engaged by the Joint Venture, then you may assume that a separate entity is standing apart from the separate businesses that make up the Joint Venture)
  • is there any other evidence that proves that a separate entity is standing apart from the businesses that have entered into the Joint Venture?

Where you have found that there is evidence that the Joint Venture is a separate entity that stands apart from the businesses who have joined together for the Joint Venture, then the Joint Venture may be registered for CIS in the normal way, depending upon whether the Joint Venture is unincorporated or incorporated.

Please then follow the appropriate action guide as set out at CISR42600, that is, if the joint concern is a partnership you would select the partnership action guide and so on.

Note, where none of the above exists, you will have a JANE (Joint Association No Entity), where two (or more) parties come together to complete a construction project, with each party being responsible for different parts of the project. In these cases no separate SA or COTAX records will be required to be set up for the JANE. The Main contractor should verify and make separate payments to each business (using their own UTR) for the work they each undertake on the project.