CISR45030 - Register and maintain subcontractor: business test: Is the business carried on in the UK?

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Detailed examination of this aspect of an application will generally occur as part of the Post-Acceptance Check.

The subcontractor must be carrying on a business in the United Kingdom. The information given in sections 10 to 14 of form CIS302, sections 2, and 6 to 10 of form CIS304, or sections 2, and 7 to 11 of form CIS305 may be enough to establish this. If, for instance, the form shows that the applicant has a business address in the UK that is obviously not a private dwelling you may accept that they are carrying on a business in the UK.

In other cases — for example, a labour-only subcontractor working from home — the application form may not show that an identifiable business set-up has been created. In such cases you should look for other evidence of the existence of the business such as

  • evidence that his private home is the business address
  • evidence of business receipts supplied in connection with the turnover test, or recorded on HMRC systems
  • successful matching of Verification Numbers supplied by the applicant when registering
  • accounts and returns in the tax file if there is one — generally, this will only apply to company and partnership cases
  • the books and accounts of the business

See CISR42130 where the applicant is not resident in the UK.