Cleaning the outside of a building is not a construction operation.
HMRC puts it in writing. Its manual at CISR14110 places external cleaning outside the Construction Industry Scheme, and names jet and chemical cleaning of the masonry, brickwork or glazing of buildings and structures.
So render softwashing, driveway and patio work, cladding cleaning and forecourt work sit outside the scheme. If a main contractor has been taking 20% off those invoices, they have been deducting from work the legislation never brought in.
The part that does fall inside the scheme
Internal cleaning is treated differently. Cleaning the inside of a building, carried out in the course of its construction, alteration, repair or restoration, is a named construction operation. That is your builders’ clean and your sparkle clean.
Which puts a lot of pressure washing companies on both sides of the line at the same time.
Outside CIS
- Jet and chemical cleaning of masonry, brickwork and glazing
- Driveways, patios, block paving and car parks
- Roof cleaning and moss removal
- Fleet, forecourt and yard cleaning
- Routine commercial cleaning with no construction work attached
Inside CIS
- Builders’ cleans and sparkle cleans following construction work
- Internal cleaning that forms part of a refurbishment or restoration
- Cleaning carried out to prepare a surface for rendering, painting or coating (see the review note below)
A firm doing domestic driveways in the morning and a sparkle clean on a new-build handover in the afternoon has one day’s work sitting under two tax treatments.
Make the invoice say which one it was
If your invoice reads “cleaning works”, the person coding it at the contractor’s end has no way of telling whether the scheme applies, so they will deduct and let you argue. That argument costs more than the deduction.
Name the building and name the work on separate lines. It takes a minute at the point of invoicing and it saves a repayment claim eighteen months later.
Contract work behaves nothing like domestic work
Domestic jobs are paid on the day and cost almost nothing to collect. Annual contracts for a managing agent or a retail group are the opposite. They are billed up front or quarterly, which means some of the money already in your bank at year end covers visits you have not made.
That is deferred income and it belongs on the balance sheet, not in this year’s profit. Get it wrong and you pay corporation tax early on work you have not done yet.
Kit, vehicles and what the job really costs
Pressure washing is heavier on equipment than people outside the trade expect. Hot wash units, bowsers, water recovery systems, tow vehicles and van fit-outs all carry capital allowances, and how you fund them changes when the relief lands. Hire purchase, lease and outright purchase are treated differently for tax.
Water and waste is the other one that catches firms out. Surface runoff usually cannot go to surface water drainage, and permits, containment and tankering are a cost of that job rather than a general overhead. Leave them in overheads and you will quote lowest on exactly the work that costs you most.
What we do
Split your work between CIS and non-CIS, and build the invoice templates so the split happens by default rather than job by job.
Recover deductions taken from external cleaning that was never in scope.
Deferred income on annual contracts handled properly, so reported profit matches earned profit.
Capital allowances on equipment and vehicles, claimed in the right year and against the right funding method.
Job costing that carries water, waste and travel into the job, so you can see which contracts actually pay.
Plus the ordinary compliance. And the standard work underneath it. The compliance side runs alongside. Accounts, corporation tax, VAT returns, payroll and self assessment.
Who we work with
UK cleaning and pressure washing limited companies turning over between £500,000 and £5 million. Everything runs on cloud accounting, so where you are based makes no difference.
Common questions
Do pressure washing companies need to register for CIS?
For external cleaning, no. HMRC puts that work outside the scheme. If you also do builders’ cleans or sparkle cleans on sites, that work is inside it and registration is likely.
A contractor is deducting 20% from my render cleaning invoices. Can I challenge it?
Yes. External cleaning is excluded by name in HMRC’s own manual. Show them the page, and reclaim what has already gone.
Is a builders’ clean really inside CIS?
Yes, where it is carried out as part of the construction, alteration, repair or restoration of the building. It is the internal cleaning limb of the legislation.
Does the VAT reverse charge apply to us?
It follows CIS scope. External cleaning is outside the scheme, so you charge VAT normally. A builders’ clean invoiced to a contractor who is not the end user is a different answer.
We bill annual contracts up front. Is it all income this year?
No. The part covering visits you have not made is deferred and belongs in next year’s profit.
Book a call and send three recent invoices, one domestic, one commercial contract and one site clean. We will tell you which of them CIS should have touched and which it should not.
Common questions
Does CIS apply to pressure washing companies?
Cleaning the outside of a building is not a construction operation. HMRC puts it in writing. Its manual at CISR14110 places external cleaning outside the Construction Industry Scheme, and names jet and chemical cleaning of the masonry, brickwork or glazing of buildings and structures. So render softwashing, driveway and patio work, cladding cleaning and forecourt work sit outside the scheme.
Does the VAT domestic reverse charge apply to pressure washing companies?
No. The reverse charge only applies to supplies that fall within CIS. Because pressure washing companies work sits outside the scheme, it sits outside the reverse charge as well, and you charge VAT in the normal way.