Supplying screed or concrete is outside the Construction Industry Scheme. Supplying it and laying it is inside.
That single line decides how you invoice and how much cash you hold through the year.
The delivery of materials to site, on its own, is not a construction operation. Batch it, mix it, drive it, tip it and leave, and there is nothing for CIS to bite on. Send a squad with the wagon to place, level, float and finish it, and the whole thing becomes a construction operation carried out on a building or on land.
Most screeding and concrete firms do both, often for the same customer in the same month, which is where the deductions start landing on the wrong invoices.
Where the line sits, including the pump
The test is whether you are selling a product or carrying out work.
Outside CIS:
- Supplying and delivering ready mix, screed or floor levelling material with no laying
- Hiring out a pump, mixer or power float with no operator, which is plant hire on its own
Inside CIS:
- Laying, placing, screeding, power floating, polishing and finishing
- Pumping where you supply the operator with the pump
- Formwork, reinforcement fixing, groundworks and slab preparation
- Sawing, grinding, joint sealing and repairs to a laid slab
Concrete pumping is the one worth reading twice. A pump sent out on dry hire, with the customer’s own man on the remote, is plant hire and sits outside the scheme. The same pump with your operator on it is inside, because you are carrying out part of the work rather than lending equipment.
The materials element and what it does to your cash
CIS is calculated on the labour element of an invoice. The direct cost of materials you have paid for is excluded from the figure the deduction is worked out on.
For screeding and concrete that detail is the whole game. Material can be the majority of the invoice value on a supply and lay job, so an invoice that shows one figure with no breakdown gets 20% applied to money that was never labour.
Take a £40,000 supply and lay contract where £26,000 of it is material. Deduction on the labour element is £2,800. Deduction on the whole invoice is £8,000. That £5,200 difference is your money, sat with HMRC until your corporation tax return or a repayment claim catches up with it, while your own material supplier is still expecting payment on 30 day terms.
Do that on four contracts and you have a cash flow problem created entirely by invoice layout.
Two rules follow. Split labour and materials on every invoice you issue, priced honestly and consistently. Then check the deduction statements coming back to you, because a contractor’s system will happily apply the deduction to the gross figure even when your invoice was correct.
Plant and the cost of a wasted load
Concrete work carries heavy fixed cost. Pumps, wagons, lasers, power floats, finance on all of it and an operator’s wages whether the slab gets poured or not.
Against that, the waste is unforgiving. A load that goes off in traffic, an over-order on a pour where the dig came out wider than measured, a mix rejected on site, a part load charged as full. None of it is recoverable and all of it belongs to one job.
Most firms in this trade know their wastage percentage roughly and could not tell you which contracts or which customers cause it. Costing plant time and material actually consumed against the job is what turns that into a number you can price against. A customer who orders badly and pours late is costing you more than their rate suggests.
Weather and the days nobody pays for
Pours get called off. Ground freezes, sites flood, a slab cannot be finished in driving rain, and a squad that turned up gets paid for a day that produced no revenue.
Standing time is recoverable on some contracts and on some it is not, and the difference is usually in a contract nobody read before signing. Where you can claim it, claim it in writing at the time rather than at final account, and record the day against the job either way so the true cost of a winter contract is visible when you price the next one.
What we do
Get the supply-only and supply-and-lay split right, on your invoices and in your accounting system, so CIS lands only on labour.
CIS run monthly in both directions where you pay your own squads, with the deduction statements coming back checked against what you invoiced and overdeductions reclaimed.
Job costing that carries plant time, material consumed, standing time and lost days, so you can see margin by contract and by customer.
Cash flow planning around material payment terms against contractor payment terms, which is the gap this trade lives in.
Underneath it, the usual. The routine compliance runs alongside all of that. Accounts, corporation tax, VAT, payroll and self assessment.
Who we work with
UK screeding and concrete limited companies turning over between £500,000 and £5 million, anywhere in the UK.
Common questions
Is supplying concrete a construction operation?
No. The delivery of materials on its own sits outside the scheme. Laying it makes the job a construction operation.
Is concrete pumping inside CIS?
With your operator, yes. Hired out without an operator it is plant hire and sits outside the scheme.
Should CIS be deducted from the material on a supply and lay invoice?
No. The deduction is calculated on the labour element, so the material has to be shown separately.
A contractor deducted 20% from my whole invoice. Can I get it back?
Yes, through your corporation tax return or an in-year repayment claim. Fixing the invoice format stops it happening again.
Do I need to register as a contractor as well?
If you pay subcontract labour for laying or finishing work, yes, with verification and monthly returns due.
Book a call. Bring one supply and lay invoice and one deduction statement, and we will show you what the split is worth to you in cash across a year.
Common questions
Does CIS apply to screeding and concrete contractors?
Supplying screed or concrete is outside the Construction Industry Scheme. Supplying it and laying it is inside. That single line decides how you invoice and how much cash you hold through the year. The delivery of materials to site, on its own, is not a construction operation. Batch it, mix it, drive it, tip it and leave, and there is nothing for CIS to bite on.
Does the VAT domestic reverse charge apply to screeding and concrete contractors?
Usually yes. The domestic reverse charge follows CIS scope. Where you supply screeding and concrete contractors work that falls inside CIS to a customer who is VAT registered, registered under CIS and is not an end user, you do not charge VAT on the invoice. Your customer accounts for it instead. Supplies to homeowners and to end users stay outside it, and you charge VAT the normal way.