Screeder
Tax & MTD Guide

For a self-employed screeder the tax picture looks different from most trades, and it is almost entirely down to the Construction Industry Scheme. You lay floors for builders and main contractors, they treat you as a subcontractor, and before they pay your labour they lop 20% straight off and hand it to HMRC. That money is a payment on account of your tax, not a final bill, and because it is taken off your turnover with no regard for your personal allowance or the cost of your pumps and mixers, it almost always overshoots. The yearly job is to declare everything properly, claim every genuine cost, and get the overpayment back.

This guide is built around how a screeder actually works: CIS deductions and the refund that follows, the specific kit and vehicle costs that knock down your profit, the records you must keep on site, and how National Insurance, VAT and Making Tax Digital fit around a CIS trade.

How Tax Works for a Self-Employed Screeder

As a sole trader you pay Income Tax on your profit, which is your total income minus allowable expenses. Crucially, your income figure is the gross labour and materials you invoiced, before any CIS deduction was taken, not the net amount that landed in your bank. For 2025/26 the personal allowance covers the first GBP 12,570, then you pay 20% to GBP 50,270, 40% to GBP 125,140 and 45% above, with the allowance tapering away between GBP 100,000 and GBP 125,140 to create an effective 60% band. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profit between GBP 12,570 and GBP 50,270 and 2% above, with Class 2 NIC settled through Self Assessment.

Scottish screeders pay Scottish Income Tax on profit through six bands (19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and a 48% top rate) and carry an S-prefixed tax code, while National Insurance stays UK-wide. Welsh screeders have a C-coded tax code at rates currently matching the rest of the UK. If you also have a PAYE job or your code looks off, run it through the tax code checker so a wrong code does not distort your CIS reconciliation.

CIS: The Deduction and Your Refund

The Construction Industry Scheme sits at the centre of a screeder's tax. When you work for a contractor, they verify you with HMRC and then deduct tax from the labour element of your invoices: 20% if you are registered and verified, or 30% if you are not registered. Materials you supply are excluded from the deduction, which is exactly why you must split labour and materials clearly on every invoice.

Because that 20% is taken off your turnover before any allowance or expense, it nearly always overpays your real liability. A screeder spending heavily on pumps, mixers, van and materials, and using a full personal allowance, typically ends the year having paid far more through CIS than they actually owe. At Self Assessment you declare full gross income, deduct expenses and the personal allowance to reach the true tax and NIC figure, then offset the CIS already suffered. The difference comes back as a refund. Work the numbers through the CIS tax calculator to see your likely refund before you file, and read our full CIS subcontractor guide for the registration and reconciliation detail.

Allowable Expenses for Screeders

An expense is allowable when incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. For a screeder the deductions are dominated by tools, plant, materials and getting to site, and they directly reduce both your Income Tax and your Class 4 NIC.

Tools, Plant and the Annual Investment Allowance

The big difference between a screeder and a desk-based freelancer is capital kit. A screed pump, a forced-action mixer or a quality laser level are not cheap, and the Annual Investment Allowance lets you deduct the whole cost in the year you buy, rather than spreading it over years. In a year you invest in a pump you can wipe out a large slice of profit, which often turns into a bigger CIS refund. Keep the purchase invoices: HMRC will want to see them if it ever asks how a big deduction arose.

Vehicle Costs

Getting yourself and your kit between sites is a real business cost. You can either claim simplified mileage at 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after, which needs only a mileage log, or claim a business proportion of actual van running costs (fuel, insurance, repairs, tax). A screeder carrying heavy plant in a dedicated van often does better on actual costs, but you must pick one method per vehicle and keep to it. Ordinary commuting from home to a regular base is not deductible; travel between sites and to one-off jobs is.

What You Cannot Claim

The private share of a dual-use van, phone or tools must be stripped out. Everyday clothing and boots worn off site are not allowable even though the work is hard on them; only genuine PPE and protective workwear count. Fines, parking penalties and the cost of your own meals on an ordinary working day are not deductible either.

The Trading Allowance and Starting Out

A screeder just going out on their own, perhaps a few weekend jobs alongside employment, has the GBP 1,000 trading allowance to fall back on. If your gross self-employed income is GBP 1,000 or less in a tax year it is tax-free and you do not need to register for Self Assessment for it. Cross GBP 1,000 and you must register and report the full amount.

Above the threshold you choose each year between deducting the flat GBP 1,000 allowance or your actual expenses, whichever leaves the lower profit. For most working screeders, with pumps, mixers, a van and materials to claim, actual expenses win comfortably, so the allowance mainly helps in a very low-cost first few months. Run your real figures through the sole trader tax calculator to compare.

Record-Keeping on a CIS Trade

Good records are not optional for a screeder, because your refund depends on them. You need three things flowing in all year: the CIS payment and deduction statements from every contractor, the material receipts that let you split labour from materials, and your expense receipts for tools, plant, PPE, fuel and insurance. A simple rhythm of photographing each statement and receipt as it lands, logged against the job, means the year-end reconciliation is a tidy sum rather than a shoebox panic.

The single most damaging mistake is recording income net of the CIS deduction. Your turnover is the gross figure before tax was taken; the deduction is claimed separately to reduce the tax due. Net it off by accident and your profit looks too low and your refund vanishes.

Worked Example: A Screeder on GBP 52,000

Take a screeder who invoiced GBP 52,000 gross over the year (GBP 40,000 labour, GBP 12,000 materials), with 20% CIS deducted from the labour.

Income: GBP 52,000 gross

CIS deducted at source: GBP 40,000 labour at 20% = GBP 8,000 already paid to HMRC

Allowable expenses:

• Screed pump and mixer (AIA, claimed in full): GBP 6,500
• Materials (sand, cement, additives, DPM): GBP 12,000
• Hand tools, consumables and PPE: GBP 1,200
• Van running costs and fuel: GBP 3,800
• Public liability and tool insurance: GBP 600
• Accountancy: GBP 500
• Total expenses: GBP 24,600

Taxable profit: GBP 52,000 minus GBP 24,600 = GBP 27,400

Income Tax: GBP 27,400 minus GBP 12,570 = GBP 14,830 at 20% = GBP 2,966

Class 4 NIC: GBP 14,830 at 6% = GBP 890

Total tax and NIC due: GBP 3,856. But GBP 8,000 was already deducted through CIS, so HMRC owes a refund of around GBP 4,144. This is why most screeders end the year reclaiming money rather than paying a bill, and why every deduction statement matters.

VAT and the Reverse Charge

You must register for VAT once taxable turnover exceeds GBP 90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, and a screeder supplying materials as well as labour can reach that faster than expected. Most construction work for other VAT-registered contractors falls under the domestic reverse charge: you do not add VAT to those invoices, and the contractor accounts for the VAT instead. You still reclaim the VAT you pay on your pump, mixer, van and materials, so registration can actually leave you better off once you are over a certain spend. Track your rolling 12-month turnover monthly so a busy run of jobs does not push you over the threshold without you noticing.

MTD for Income Tax: What Changes for Screeders

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment replaces the once-a-year return with quarterly digital submissions and a year-end finalisation. The thresholds are based on gross income before CIS deductions and before expenses, not profit:

• April 2026: Combined trading and property income over GBP 50,000
• April 2027: Over GBP 30,000
• April 2028: Over GBP 20,000

The catch for screeders is that the test is gross turnover, so the worked example above at GBP 52,000 is already in scope from April 2026 even though profit is far lower. In practice you will record each job, payment statement and material receipt digitally as it happens and send HMRC a summary every quarter, then finalise. The upside is that continuous record-keeping makes the CIS reconciliation and your refund far easier to evidence. Our guide to MTD for sole traders walks through the quarterly rhythm in plain English.

Common Mistakes Screeders Make

Recording income net of CIS. Your turnover is the gross figure before the 20% was taken; the deduction is claimed separately. Net it off and you understate profit and lose your refund.

Not splitting labour and materials on invoices. CIS only applies to labour, so a clear materials line keeps the deduction off your supplies and gets the figures right.

Losing deduction statements. No statement, no evidenced refund. Photograph each one as it arrives.

Forgetting to register for CIS. Unregistered subcontractors suffer 30% deductions instead of 20%, so register with HMRC before you start invoicing contractors.

Missing the VAT threshold while supplying materials. A strong run of material-heavy jobs can tip you over GBP 90,000 quietly, so watch the rolling 12-month figure.

People also ask

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