Everything a self-employed tiler needs to know about CIS deductions, claimable expenses and Making Tax Digital.
If you sub-contract on construction sites as well as tiling private bathrooms, you may already have had tax deducted from your invoices before a penny reaches your bank account. That is the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) at work, and for many tilers it represents the single biggest interaction with HMRC all year, yet it is also one of the least understood. Getting your CIS position, your materials accounting and your tool expenses right are what separate a tiler who overpays tax from one who pays exactly what is due.
As a sole-trader tiler your profit, meaning turnover minus allowable expenses, is added to any other income you have and taxed through Self Assessment. The first GBP 12,570 is covered by the personal allowance and is tax-free. Income between GBP 12,571 and GBP 50,270 is taxed at 20% for Income Tax, plus Class 4 National Insurance Contributions at 6%. Above GBP 50,270 the Income Tax rate rises to 40% and Class 4 NIC falls to 2%. You also owe Class 2 NIC, currently a flat annual amount, though from 2024/25 onwards it is only payable if your profits exceed the Small Profits Threshold.
If you also hold a PAYE job, your personal allowance may already be used there. Use TapTax's tax code checker to confirm you are not accidentally paying tax twice on the same slice of income.
You can use the sole trader tax calculator at any point in the year to run a quick estimate of your bill so the January payment is never a shock.
Tiling sits firmly within the construction operations covered by CIS when it is carried out under a construction contract, including bathrooms on new builds, hotel refurbishments, commercial floor projects and any site where a main contractor is in charge. Private domestic jobs where you deal directly with the homeowner are outside CIS; the contractor-sub-contractor relationship is what triggers it.
The practical consequence is significant. If a contractor pays you GBP 3,000 for a week's site work comprising GBP 2,000 labour and GBP 1,000 materials, they should deduct 20% of GBP 2,000 only, meaning GBP 400, and pay you GBP 2,600. That GBP 400 goes to HMRC on your behalf. Over a year of mixed site and domestic work the CIS credits can be substantial, and they reduce your January Self Assessment bill pound for pound. If the credits exceed your tax liability, HMRC will refund the difference.
Two things to do immediately if you have not already: register as a CIS sub-contractor with HMRC (to pay 20% rather than 30%), and collect a monthly statement from every contractor you work for. Use the CIS tax calculator to see how credits you have accumulated map against your expected annual bill.
Because only the labour element is subject to CIS deduction, a combined invoice that blurs the split hands the contractor a reason to deduct on the full amount. A clear invoice showing labour as one line and materials (adhesive, tiles supplied by you, grout, sealant) as a separate line gives both parties a clean audit trail and ensures you are only deducted on what HMRC intends.
The expenses that matter to a tiler are very different from those of an office-based freelancer. Here is what you can legitimately claim, in the language you will recognise from your day-to-day work.
| Expense | What you can claim | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tile cutters, levelling systems and trowels | Full cost; or annual investment allowance for capital items | Notched trowels, spacers, wedge levelling systems, angle grinders with tile blades |
| Adhesive, grout and sealant | Full cost as materials/cost of sale | Must appear in accounts as expenditure matched to the revenue |
| Sample boards and showroom display tiles | Full cost as marketing or sales materials | Boards used only to win work, not fitted on a job |
| Van running costs or mileage | 45p/mile (first 10,000) then 25p/mile, OR actual costs | Cannot switch methods mid-van; travel from home to a fixed workplace is not claimable |
| Knee pads, masks and PPE | Full cost | Specific to the physical demands of tiling; dust masks matter in enclosed bathrooms |
| Public liability insurance | Full premium | Essential for domestic and commercial sites |
| Tool replacement and repair | Full cost | Diamond blades, drill bits, mixing paddles; consumables count |
| Work clothing and laundry | Branded or protective workwear only | Plain clothing does not qualify |
| Phone (business proportion) | Business-use percentage of bills | Keep a log if you also use the phone personally |
| Training and trade courses | Full cost if maintaining existing skills | A tiling technique course qualifies; a general business management degree is unlikely to |
Sample boards and showroom display tiles deserve a specific mention because they are easy to overlook. If you invest in a display board to show prospective clients colour combinations and finishes, that is a sales and marketing cost, entirely claimable. It is not the same as tiles you fit on a job.
Most tiling work is standard-rated for VAT at 20%, meaning if your taxable turnover (not profit) crosses GBP 90,000 on a rolling 12-month basis you must register. The rolling basis is the trap: a strong six months can push you over the threshold even if your previous year's annual accounts showed less. Check your running total every month, not once a year.
One genuine exception exists for tilers working on qualifying new dwellings. Where your work forms part of the construction of a new house or flat that has never been lived in, it can be zero-rated. The key word is "construction"; a refurbishment of an existing property does not qualify even if the bathroom is completely stripped and rebuilt. Get written confirmation from the main contractor about the VAT status of the project before you zero-rate anything.
If you are VAT-registered and work for a VAT-registered business on a construction project, you may also need to apply the domestic reverse charge, where the customer accounts for the VAT rather than you. The reverse charge applies to CIS-caught services; check with an accountant if your site work is complex.
A tiler driving between a morning bathroom job in one part of town and an afternoon floor installation somewhere else can claim every mile of that journey. The HMRC flat-rate allowance is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, dropping to 25p per mile after that. Alternatively, you can claim the actual costs of running the van, fuel, insurance, road tax, servicing, and a capital allowance for the vehicle itself, but you cannot use both methods for the same van.
For most tilers with a van used heavily for work, actual costs tend to produce a larger deduction than the mileage rate, but it requires more record-keeping. Use the mileage and vehicle cost planner to compare both approaches with your own figures before committing to a method for the year.
Journeys from your home to a site you attend regularly, such as a long-running commercial project, can eventually be treated as ordinary commuting and become non-deductible. HMRC regards a site as a temporary workplace if you attend it for less than 24 months and it does not become your normal place of work; most tiling contracts comfortably meet that test.
Take a tiler who splits her year between private bathroom projects and CIS sub-contract work, with total invoiced turnover of GBP 30,000.
Income breakdown:
Allowable expenses:
Taxable profit: GBP 30,000 minus GBP 7,790 = GBP 22,210
Tax and NIC:
CIS credits: During the year her contractors deducted 20% of GBP 9,000 in labour, so GBP 1,800 was already paid to HMRC on her behalf. That GBP 1,800 reduces her January payment to approximately GBP 706.
Without registering for CIS, the deduction would have been 30%, or GBP 2,700, leaving her in credit by GBP 194 for a refund. Registration clearly matters.
CIS credits are money already paid to HMRC on your behalf. They reduce your Self Assessment bill pound for pound, and if they exceed your liability, HMRC refunds the difference.
From April 2026, tilers with self-employment and property income above GBP 50,000 must use MTD-compatible software to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC instead of a single annual return. The threshold drops to GBP 30,000 from April 2027.
For a tiler this means recording each job, each material purchase and each CIS deduction in real time, four times a year, rather than gathering everything in January. The quarterly update is a summary of income and expenses, not a full tax return, but the record-keeping discipline is higher than most sole traders are used to.
The upside is that quarterly figures show you exactly where you stand before the payment deadline, eliminating the shock of a large January bill. The quarterly tax planner can help you set aside the right amount each month based on your current-year income.
If you are currently below the threshold, it is worth moving to digital records now. Spreadsheets and paper receipts become a real problem when the mandate kicks in and you have a backlog to reconstruct.
Recording materials as the customer's cost when they are actually yours. This is by far the most common tiler error. If a customer does not buy tiles, adhesive and grout directly; if they pay you and you go to the trade counter, those materials are your income and your expense. Leaving the material element out of both income and expenditure makes your accounts look cleaner but understates your turnover. HMRC can treat this as an error or, in serious cases, as deliberate misreporting. Record the full invoice value as income and the materials as cost of sale.
Not separating labour and materials on CIS invoices. A single-line invoice causes contractors to deduct 20% on the full amount including materials, which is incorrect and costs you cash flow unnecessarily.
Claiming private journeys as business mileage. The school run is not a business mile even if you have tools in the van. A mileage log by date, start and end point, and purpose is the only reliable defence if HMRC queries your vehicle claims.
Missing the VAT threshold. A busy summer of kitchen and bathroom refits can push turnover past GBP 90,000 before you have noticed. Failure to register within 30 days of breaching the threshold triggers a penalty, and you become liable for VAT on sales back to the date you should have registered.
Forgetting to collect CIS statements. Without a monthly statement from each contractor showing what was deducted, you cannot prove the credits to HMRC. Chase these every month, not at year-end.
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