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How to complete your Levy Return

Completing your Levy Return is a legal requirement.  It ensures you can access grants, funding and other support for training.

This page has information to help you through each section of your Levy Return.

You can find out how to complete:

Checklist

Before returning your Levy Return to us, please check that you have:

  • Checked your business name and details
  • Completed all the relevant boxes
  • Included the details of any Prescribed Organisations you belong to at Section 1a
  • Included your directors’ wages in Section 2, if your business is a limited company
  • Explained why if you have declared nil payroll in Section 2
  • Updated your Levy contact details
  • Put your name and CITB Registration Number on any continuation sheets and securely attached them
  • Written amounts in whole pounds only, ignoring pence or entered ‘0’ where value is nil
  • Read the declaration statement and signed the declaration in Section 6.

We recommend you keep a copy of the signed CITB Levy Return for your records.

Other useful links

Details of your business including main activity (Section 1)

Please check the information in this section is correct, this should include your business name if applicable, business address and registration number.

If any of the information is incorrect, please cross through and add new details.  If your registration number is incorrect, please contact levy.grant@citb.co.uk and inform us.

Please add your Companies House number if you have one. You will only have a Companies House number if your business has been incorporated as a limited company.

A company is a legal entity with a separate identity from those who own or run it.

What is my main activity?

Your main activity should be the activity that best represents your business. If this has changed, it is important that you detail this on the Levy Return.

A list of main activities, is available on Who should register with CITB?

Membership of Prescribed Organisations (Section 1a)

We consult regularly with the Prescribed Organisations, that represent employers from across the industry on key Levy issues, including Levy rates and thresholds.

A Prescribed Organisation refers to an organisation that will collectively speak on behalf of its members with respect to Levy proposals. This is likely to be a construction trade association or federation you are a member of.

Please indicate in the space provided any Prescribed Organisations you belong to in Section 1a. This information enables us to calculate each organisation’s level of employer representation.

We do not pass any financial information you give us to Prescribed Organisations.

Please do not leave Section 1a blank. If you don’t belong to a Prescribed Organisation, you should state ‘none’.

Access a non-exhaustive list and find out why we need this information.

Full names of sole trader or partners (Section 1b)

If you are a sole trader or partnership, please check the information in this section is correct.  If any of the information is incorrect, please cross through and add new details.

Please do not complete this section if your business is a limited company.

Payments to employees including paid directors (Section 2)

Box A

Please enter your total gross taxable payments made to all employees on the payroll, including paid directors.

This figure is the total amount for the year on your payroll records that you will have submitted to HMRC.

Please do not include pence in your entry, the figure provided should be entered in whole pounds only, ignoring any pence.

Please do not leave Box A blank, if amount is nil, please enter ‘0’.

If your entry for box A is zero/nil, in the space provided please enter the reason why your payments to employees were nil.  Please do not leave blank.  Please note that directors of limited companies count as employees and should be included, if there were no payments to director this should be declared here.

Please state the reason for nil payroll, this maybe directors are not paid, sole traders are paid as drawing or that you only use sub-contractor labour.

Include:

  • All PAYE payments to staff including working directors, administrative and clerical staff as well as any leavers

Exclude:

  • Pensions
  • Sole trader and partner drawings
  • Employer’s National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
  • Dividends
  • Payments to self-employed workers, sub-contractors or agency staff.

Box B

Please enter the average number of employees on the payroll. 

Part-time employees should be counted as appropriate fractions of full-time employees.

The number of employees listed on your Levy Return will not affect your Levy Assessment, it just helps us in our data of the register and helps us spot common error on submissions.

What about dormant companies?

Dormant companies must still complete an annual Levy Return.  Please complete the form ensuring you give the reason for nil payroll as ‘Dormant’ in Section 2 or alternatively clearly mark on the form

‘Dormant’ ensuring you complete the declaration in Section 6.

Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) payments (Section 3)

Part of the Levy is calculated based on payments made to net paid (taxable) CIS sub-contractors.

Levy will not be assessed on any payments made to gross paid CIS sub-contractors

Please note: if you have not used any sub-contractor labour through the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) in the Levy year, you will not have figures to calculate for this section, but we request you enter ‘0’ in Box C and D, so we know the value is nil and not that the section has been missed in error.

Box C

Please enter your total tax deducted from sub-contractors made through CIS.  This figure can be obtained by totalling 12 monthly CIS300/online contractor returns that your business submitted to HMRC in the year.

Box D 

Please enter your total of all payments (before deductions) to all CIS sub-contractors. This figure can be found in the column headed ‘Total payments made (do not include VAT)’ on the 12 monthly CIS300/online contractor returns that you have submitted to HMRC in the year.

Please do not include pence in your entry, the figure provided should be entered in whole pounds only, ignoring any pence.

Please do not leave Boxes C and D blank, if amount is nil, please enter ‘0’.

Have you deducted tax at 30% from some or all sub-contractors paid through CIS?

  • If your response to this question is ‘No’ then follow the instruction in box E and proceed to the next section
  • If the answer to the above is ‘Yes’, you should complete box F, entering your payments to taxable sub-contractors less materials

Why is Box F important?

The Levy calculation applied to Box C assumes that all sub-contractors were taxed at 20%.  If the Levy calculation is based on the figure in Box C and some sub-contractors were taxed at 30%, then your Levy bill will be higher than it should be.

Box F is provided to allow you to account for payments to sub-contractors where tax has been deducted at both 20% and 30%. Box F should therefore declare the correct amount of sub-contractor payments liable to Levy so that the Levy Assessment can be accurately calculated.

Calculating Box F, your payments to taxable sub-contractors less materials.

To correctly calculate Box F, add together the total payments made to all sub-contractors where you deducted tax, and subtract the cost of their materials (paid for by each sub-contractor) from every line on your May to April CIS300/online contractor returns.

The final figure should then include both those taxed at 20% and those taxed at 30% to give you an accurate assessment.

Please note:  this figure should be less than Box C (total tax deducted from sub-contractors made through CIS) times five but greater the Box C time 3.3.

Establishments (Section 4)

An establishment is regarded as an entity in a commercial sense of a separate house of business or commercial organisation. It does not include in-house departments, separate office locations, building sites, yards etc.

In space provided please enter the total number of establishments that have been included in the figures on your Levy Return.

If you have more than one construction establishment, enter the details for each one on page 2 or on a separate sheet attached firmly to your Levy Return. If your construction establishment does not currently have a CITB Registration Number, or you do not know this, please leave this column blank.

This should include any business not stated in Section 1 that is included in your payments to employees (Section 2) and payments to sub-contractors through CIS (Section 3).

Levy contact details (Section 5)

Please amend the Levy contact details if incorrect or complete where blank so we can ensure we continue to communicate with the right person. 

Please note: if you remove a contact as your main Levy contact, we will assume they still need to be a contact for your business.  If you wish to remove them then you should email levy.grant@citb.co.uk

Declaration (Section 6)

Once the form is complete, please sign and complete the declaration.  The declaration needs to be signed by a director, company secretary or someone in a similar position of responsibility.

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