Claiming a Tax Refund Without CIS Statements

If you've worked as a CIS subcontractor and tax was deducted from your pay before it reached you, you're entitled to claim that money back against your tax bill. Any excess is repaid as a tax refund. The problem some subcontractors run into is that their contractor never provided them with CIS deduction statements. Without those statements, making a claim becomes significantly harder. It's not impossible, but it does present a fundamental challenge that needs to be approached the right way.

What Is a CIS Deduction Statement and Why Does It Matter?

A CIS deduction statement is the document your contractor is required to give you each month. It sets out how much they paid you and how much tax they deducted from that payment. It's the standard way of demonstrating that deductions were made, and it forms the basis of any CIS refund claim.

Contractors are required by law to provide these. When they don't, that is their failing, not yours.

Why Do Some Contractors Not Provide Them?

There are a number of reasons this happens. Some contractors fall behind on their filings with HMRC. Some fail to make the appropriate submissions at all. It is not uncommon for deductions to be taken from a subcontractor's pay but never passed across to HMRC. In some cases the contractor is simply disorganised. In others, the situation is more serious.

Whatever the reason, the subcontractor ends up without the documentation they need through no fault of their own.

Does That Mean You Can't Claim?

No. The absence of a CIS statement does not automatically mean there is no entitlement to a refund. What it does mean is that the deductions need to be evidenced another way.

The goal is to get enough evidence together so that HMRC can understand what happened and be satisfied that deductions should have been paid across. This takes more work than a standard claim, but it is achievable with the right evidence in place.

What Evidence Can Be Used Instead?

This is where the detail matters. The following types of evidence can be used to support a claim where statements are missing:

1. Bank statements showing net payments received from the contractor. If tax was being deducted at source, the amounts landing in your account will reflect that.

2. Records showing what your agreed gross rate was. This might be a contract, a written agreement, or any other documentation that establishes what you were supposed to be paid before deductions.

3. Messages with your contractor confirming the arrangement. Text messages, emails, or any other written communication can all be relevant.

4. Any partial statements that were provided. Even if you only have statements covering part of the period, those can support the broader picture.

5. Details about the work itself. Information about the type of work you were doing, the sites you were working on, and who you were working for can all help establish the nature of the arrangement and support the wider case.

Whilst, on their own, any one of these may not be enough, together they can build a case that gives HMRC enough to work with.

What We Can Do

We have handled cases like this before and successfully recovered refunds for subcontractors whose contractors failed to meet their legal obligations. The argument is straightforward: a contractor's failure to file correctly does not extinguish a subcontractor's right to reclaim tax that was taken from their pay.

If you think deductions were made from your pay but you don't have the statements to show for it, get in touch. We'll look at what evidence is available and let you know whether a claim is worth pursuing.

Contact us here.