HMRC could make you pay for someone else's fraud.
If HMRC decides you knew or should have known a job was linked to tax fraud, you can lose gross payment status for 5 years, pay the lost tax and a 30% penalty on top.
HMRC says businesses that do their checks should not be affected. Checks you have written down are how you show it.
Source: GOV.UK, Tackling Construction Industry Scheme fraud (policy paper, 26 November 2025).
Check a subcontractor company
Red flags from the Companies House public register.
How exposed are you?
15 quick questions: 3 about you, 12 about how you check. Your answers stay on your device.
Sole trader or partnership? They are people, not companies, so we do not check them here. Verify them with HMRC as you would anyone.
Supply labour? Check the firms in your own chain, and show the contractors who pay you that you check.For labour providers
- Companies HouseThe public register, read when you check
- No signup, no cookiesSelf-check answers stay on your device
- Every figure sourcedLinked to its GOV.UK page
- ICO registeredNumber C2069012
One of my subcontractors didn't pay his tax. Is that my problem?
It can be. Under the new rules HMRC asks one question about you: did you know, or should you have known, that a job was linked to fraud?
You are not liable for every subcontractor whatever you do. You are judged on what you should have spotted. A check you ran, and wrote down with the date, is how you show you looked.
Three steps, and you keep the record.
Check the company
Type its company number. We read the public register and look for the signs HMRC's guidance points to.
See what is worth a closer look
Very new, filings overdue, directors changing, a business that is not construction. Each with the question to ask.
Keep a dated record
Save the result with your CIS records. The detailed report adds the full check and a written checking process for your office.
Plain flags, fair to the company.
Every result shows what is clear as well as what is worth a closer look, and when we read the register. A flag is a reason to ask, never a verdict.
What this check cannot tell you. We cannot see a company's CIS registration or gross payment status. Only you can, by verifying them with HMRC before you pay.
- Very newSet up 4 months ago. Many new firms are fine. New companies are also used in fraud chains, so it is worth a closer look.Ask: Who have you worked for, and can we see references?
- Directors keep changing3 director changes in the last 12 months. Worth a closer look.Ask: Who runs it day to day?
- ActiveCompanies House shows it as active.
- Filings up to dateNo accounts or confirmation statement overdue.
What changed on 6 April 2026.
Gross payment status can be cancelled at once, and you cannot reapply for 5 years. It used to be one.
The business can be made to pay the tax that was lost through the fraud.
A penalty of 30% of the lost tax, which can also reach directors and people connected to the business.
All of this applies only where HMRC decides you knew or should have known. HMRC calls that an objective test: what a reasonable business would have spotted. Sources: GOV.UK, Tackling Construction Industry Scheme fraud (policy paper, 26 November 2025); HMRC manual CISR85060: 'knew or should have known' principles.
CIS, in plain English.
The record that shows you looked.
- The full check of the company, from our checking partner
- Your checking process, written for your office, in HMRC's own terms
- The register result, dated, to keep with your CIS records