The reverse charge applies when you and the main contractor are both VAT-registered and the job is standard- or reduced-rated CIS construction work. Work you invoice direct to a homeowner doesn’t qualify, so that one carries VAT as normal. Zero-rated work, such as building a new home, doesn’t take it either. Tick the reverse charge on a sterling invoice and Sendinvo charges no VAT, prints the wording HMRC expects, and shows the rate and the VAT figure your contractor accounts for.
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You and the main contractor are both VAT-registered, and the job is standard- or reduced-rated CIS construction work. A job you invoice direct to a homeowner isn’t one of these, and nor is zero-rated work such as building a new home. It doesn’t apply either when the client has told you in writing that they’re an end user, a business that uses the work itself rather than selling it on.
Price the job as usual, labour and materials on their own lines. The reverse charge sits inside the CIS block on a sterling invoice. Tick it and the invoice charges no VAT.
The invoice carries “Reverse charge: customer to account for VAT to HMRC”, with the rate and the VAT amount that would otherwise have applied. You don’t type it.
They account for the VAT to HMRC at their end. You send the invoice and get paid, and the VAT never goes near your bank account.
First fix electrical, invoiced to a main contractor, both of you VAT-registered. The two tax figures on it are worked out on different amounts, which is the part that catches people out.
Voltage Works Ltd
12 Ashworth Street
Manchester M4 5JD
Registered in England and Wales
Company number 07731562
VAT GB 456 7891 23 1
Harding Build Ltd
5 Pollard Yard
Manchester M40 7FS
£2,820.00 due 23 September 2026, after the £480.00 CIS deduction
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Labour, first fix electrical | £2,400.00 |
| Materials, cable and consumer unit | £900.00 |
Reverse charge: customer to account for VAT to HMRC at 20% (£660.00). 3
The reverse charge moves the VAT off your invoice and onto the main contractor. Where you and they are both VAT-registered and the job is standard- or reduced-rated CIS construction work, you charge nothing and they account for it to HMRC. Get the wording wrong and the invoice comes back to be raised again, so Sendinvo prints it for you.
A reverse charge invoice charges no VAT. In its place it carries the phrase HMRC expects, “Reverse charge: customer to account for VAT to HMRC”, alongside the rate and the VAT amount that would otherwise have applied. The main contractor has the figure they need to account for it at their end.
The reverse charge isn’t a stray setting on every invoice you raise. It sits inside the CIS block on a CIS invoice, which you see once CIS is switched on in your company settings. It appears only if your company is VAT-registered, and only on sterling invoices, so it stays next to the construction work it applies to, and off the job you did for a homeowner last week.
The reverse charge and the CIS deduction are two different things on the same invoice, worked out on two different amounts. The deduction comes off your labour and lowers what the main contractor pays you; the reverse charge is worked out on the full net and changes who accounts for the VAT. Sendinvo does both, and where a job mixes rates you can also set VAT per line.
It’s a rule for standard- or reduced-rated CIS construction work where you and the main contractor are both VAT-registered. Instead of you charging VAT, they account for it to HMRC. It doesn’t apply to zero-rated work, such as building a new home, or to a job you invoice direct to a homeowner. It doesn’t apply either when the client has told you in writing that they’re an end user, a business that uses the work itself rather than selling it on. Sendinvo adds it as part of the CIS flow.
The wording HMRC expects, “Reverse charge: customer to account for VAT to HMRC”, with the rate and the VAT amount that would otherwise have applied. Sendinvo prints it, so you don’t have to remember the phrasing or get the invoice sent back.
No. On a domestic reverse charge invoice you charge no VAT. The main contractor accounts for it to HMRC at their end, which is the whole point of the rule.
They’re separate, and they’re worked out on different amounts. The CIS deduction comes off your labour and lowers what the main contractor pays you. The reverse charge is worked out on the full net and changes who accounts for the VAT. Both can sit on the same invoice.
No. It sits inside the CIS block, appears only if your company is VAT-registered, and only on sterling invoices, because the reverse charge is a UK construction rule. For a job that mixes rates you can also set VAT per line.
Tick the reverse charge on a sterling invoice and Sendinvo charges no VAT and prints the wording HMRC expects.