How we got an Edmonton CIS groundworker £5,500 back across two years
Client A is a self-employed groundworker working CIS for contractors on construction sites across North London and the Lee Valley. He'd had 20% deducted at source for two years and, with English as a second language, had found the self-assessment system difficult and had filed nothing, accumulating HMRC penalty notices.
We took over and acted quickly. We reconstructed his income from his CIS payment statements and bank records, captured his legitimate expenses (van costs via the mileage method, tools, PPE, materials, phone), and filed both years' self-assessments showing the refund due against the CIS-deducted income. We wrote to HMRC requesting cancellation of the late filing penalties (the returns showed refunds due, so no tax was lost) and got them substantially reduced.