Getting your CIS backNew
The statements contractors owe you, which ones are late, and what the tax year adds up to.
Written 8 October 2026
What is said in this recording
The deduction on your invoices is your own tax, paid early on your behalf — but you can only reclaim what you can prove. By law the contractor must give you a written payment and deduction statement within 14 days of the end of each tax month, and that statement is the evidence. CIS suffered lists every month that has a deduction in it, says which statements have not arrived, and totals the year.
Step by step
- 1
Open Reports, then CIS suffered.
The button only appears for a business with CIS turned on. Everything on the page is built from your own invoices — there is nothing to set up.
- 2
Read the four figures at the top.
What was deducted this tax year, how much of it you can prove, how much has no statement behind it, and how many months are worth chasing.
- 3
When a statement arrives, press Statement received on that month.
If the figure on it differs from yours, type what it says. Leave it blank when it agrees.
- 4
Chase anything marked Chase it.
That is a month whose 14 days are up with nothing recorded against it. Until it arrives, that money is taken and unproven.
Worth knowing
These are HMRC tax months, not calendar months
A tax month runs from the 6th of one month to the 5th of the next, and the tax year from 6 April to 5 April. So the month ended 5 November covers 6 October to 5 November, and it has nothing to do with the period selector on the main Reports page — which is why this is a page of its own rather than a card on that one.
A deduction counts when they PAY, not when you invoice
An invoice raised in March and paid in May is a May deduction, on May’s statement, in the following tax year. An invoice a contractor has not finished paying does not appear here at all: no money has moved, so nothing has been deducted and no statement is owed yet. That is why a figure here can differ from the deductions showing on your invoice list.
One statement, one contractor, one month
That is the shape of the paperwork: a single statement covers every payment that contractor made to you in the month, however many invoices it settles. The page lists the invoices underneath so you can check it off against them.
If their figure disagrees with yours, theirs is what you can prove
You reclaim against the statement, so a statement saying £250 proves £250 however many invoices say £270. The month is flagged and the difference named, because one of you is wrong and it is far easier to settle now than at the end of the year.
What it does not do
It does not file anything and it does not produce a monthly CIS return — that return is the contractor’s obligation, and you are on the subcontractor’s side of it. Nor does it split one invoice’s deduction across two tax months: an invoice part-paid across a month end counts once, when it is settled.