CIS vs PAYE UK: see the 2026 guide

This guide has been consolidated. InvoiceAdept no longer maintains two CIS vs PAYE articles. The full 2026 UK guide lives at one URL. This page is a pointer only - not a second long guide, and not a tax-choice menu.

Ignore any leftover FAQ accordion on this URL that still mentions a £1 million CIS registration figure. That figure is wrong. Mainstream CIS contractors register when they pay subcontractors for construction work. Deemed contractors (non-construction businesses) use a construction-spend test of more than £3 million in the 12 months since the first payment - GOV.UK CIS. A developer HTTP 301 and FAQ / JSON-LD wipe are still outstanding (Claude).

Read the canonical article: CIS vs PAYE UK (2026): employment status, 20%/30% deductions and payroll.

What that 2026 guide covers (this URL does not)

You do not pick CIS or PAYE to save tax. Employment status comes first. If someone is an employee for tax, you run PAYE. If they are genuinely self-employed and the work is construction operations under the Construction Industry Scheme, the contractor withholds CIS (0%, 20% or 30%) from the labour / CIS base after verification, then remits with the monthly return. HMRC and the courts decide status from the facts (control, substitution, mutuality of obligation, and the rest). Labels on invoices do not decide it.

The canonical guide is the one to bookmark: status tests, CIS 0/20/30, how PAYE actually works, why take-home is not a like-for-like comparison, deemed contractors versus mainstream construction contractors, and VAT as a separate question. VAT registration threshold is £90,000 from 1 April 2024 - GOV.UK VAT registration. For 2026/27, Class 4 National Insurance (self-employed) is 6% on profits over £12,570 up to £50,270 and 2% on profits above £50,270 - GOV.UK self-employed NI. Mainstream CIS contractors register when they pay subcontractors for construction work. Deemed contractors (non-construction businesses) register when they have spent more than £3 million on construction in the 12 months since the first payment - GOV.UK CIS.

InvoiceAdept is invoicing software from Tech Me Today Ltd, Companies House 15917255, ICO ZB944663. Free is five invoices a month. Pro is £7.99. Pro+ is £12.99 and includes CIS invoice lines. Pricing. InvoiceAdept does not file CIS300, does not operate PAYE, and does not submit Self Assessment or VAT returns. This page is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice.

Last reviewed: 15 September 2026. A proper HTTP 301 from this slug into the canonical URL still needs a developer change (Cloudflare / Next). Until that lands, this body is the consolidation notice so the old draft is not left ranking with stale figures.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about CIS versus PAYE are answered in the canonical guide, not on this consolidation page. If an old FAQ widget still appears below with a £1 million CIS trigger, treat it as stale leftover schema - use the canonical article and GOV.UK instead. Replace the CMS FAQ accordion with the five twin FAQ items in /workspace/cis-paye-faq-wipe.json (Claude / publisher).

• CIS vs PAYE UK (2026): employment status, 20%/30% deductions and payroll

• GOV.UK: Construction Industry Scheme - mainstream contractors register when they pay subcontractors for construction work; deemed contractors use the £3 million construction-spend test

• GOV.UK: PAYE for employers

Do not use older summaries that invent a £1 million CIS registration trigger. That figure is wrong for mainstream CIS contractors.