Citi Accounts | Tax Return for Builder

The building trade is a varied business, where you could be working on anything from the building of single houses to whole housing estates.

Learning to be a builder – training and qualifications

Working as an apprentice is the most common way to become a builder. You’ll get the opportunity to learn practical skills from experts while earning a small wage and studying for the relevant qualifications at college. For information on building apprenticeships, check out Building Engineering Services Training (BEST), a leading training provider in the building services industry. The Apprenticeship Guide will give you information and guidance on apprenticeships in general.

What does a freelance builder have to do?

Being a freelance builder can be a varied and interesting job.
Here are just a few of the tasks you’ll do and the skills you’ll need:

• Calculate estimates based on plans and the materials and labour required
• Build structures
• Supervise any subcontractors to ensure work is completed to deadlines and to the required quality
• Communicate with the clients throughout the project to ensure you are working towards their visions and standards of quality
• Organise material deliveries so timings don’t clash with work

How to find work as a freelance builder

In the early days of your career as a freelance builder, you’ll be spending much of your time marketing your services in order to find clients.

Here are a few things you can do to market your building services:

• Business cards: Give business cards to friends and family for them to give to people they think might need your services.
• Set up a website: A professional website will give you more credibility, and is a great place to display your services, contact details, and photos of previous work.
• Local adverts: Place adverts in local shops and newspapers, which is relatively inexpensive and lets you target potential clients in specific locations.
• Free directories: Place details about you and your services on free online directories such as Yell.com or FreeIndex. People will find your building services when they search for builders in their local area.

Accounting as a freelance builder

There are various benefits to freelancing as a builder, from the freedom and flexibility to work with a variety of businesses and individuals to more take-home pay. But there is one downside – accounting.

As a full-time employee, your tax is usually taken care of on your behalf in the form of PAYE. As a freelancer you’ll have to keep a range of financial records and then prepare and pay a Self-Assessment tax return at the end of each business year.

Accountancy can be very confusing and can distract you from your building projects.

Getting tax and accountancy advice

With most accountants, you’ll pay them to do your year-end accounts, and then they’ll forget about you until the next year.

But for your business to be run smoothly and successfully, you’ll need advice on tax and accountancy throughout the year, especially in the early days.

Citi Accounts is different

Citi Accounts provides an affordable and specialist accountancy service designed just for freelancers. Throughout the year we’ll be on hand to give you any tax and accountancy advice you might need, including things like:

• Take-home pay
• Which VAT scheme to register for Expenses
• Tax allowances
• Choosing between sole trader and limited company
• Running your business in a tax-efficient way

We charge for our accountancy services in a clear and simple way, which means
you’ll never receive an unexpected bill, and you can get in touch for advice whenever you want without the worry of being charged a fortune like you would with many other accountants.