What can a self-employed plasterer claim?
Bags of multi-finish and bonding, board and beads, the mixing drill, stilts, skip and tip charges, your cards and your van all come off your profit before tax. Here is how labour-only site work changes what you buy and what CIS takes, and a worked year for a dryliner on new-build plots.
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What a self-employed plasterer can claim
Bagged plaster, board and beads
Multi-finish, bonding and hardwall, board adhesive, plasterboard, angle and stop beads, scrim tape and PVA, plus render, basecoat and monocouche on an exterior, and coving if you fit it. They end up in the building, so they go under Goods for resale, and whatever you bill the customer for them counts as turnover. On a new-build site the main contractor often supplies the board and plaster, and then this box may hold little more than the beads and scrim you buy yourself.
Mixer, hawk and trowels
A mixing drill, hawks, finishing and plastic trowels, floats, a darby and a feather edge, stilts and a board lifter are kit for the job, and FileThat's box for kit is Repairs and maintenance. A spray plaster machine or render pump goes there too, deducted in full in the tax year the money leaves your account under the cash basis, however much it cost. Mixing paddles, sponges and the buckets that set solid are worn out by the work, so they go in Other expenses.
Dry lining and metal stud
For dry lining work, a screw gun, a stud cutter and a sander with dust extraction are equipment like the trowels. Collated screws, jointing tape and compound are used up on the job, in Other expenses. If you supply and fix the board and metal stud yourself, those are materials, in Goods for resale, and the invoice should show them on their own line.
Skips and gypsum waste
Old plaster, board off-cuts and empty bags have to go somewhere. Most tips take plasterboard only in its own bay and charge for it, and a skip on a private job is yours to pay for. Skip hire and tip charges are Other expenses. If you carry waste in your own van, registering as a waste carrier is a cost of trading too, recorded as Other expenses.
Cards, masks and knee pads
The CSCS card renewal, and the CITB test that goes with it, is what gets you through the site gate, and it is allowable as Other expenses. Dust masks for mixing and sanding, eye protection, knee pads for low skimming and the overalls that keep plaster off your clothes are protective, in Other expenses.
Insurance, phone and the books
Public liability is often a condition of getting on a site, and tool cover protects the gear in the van overnight; both go in Insurance. The work share of your mobile bill and your accountant's fee each have their own box, and business cards or a website to find private skimming work go in Advertising costs.
The rules behind every claim: allowable expenses for sole traders.
Plots, merchants and the van
Pick a method for the van and stay with it while you own that van: HMRC's flat mileage rates, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after that, or the business share of its real running costs, fuel, insurance, servicing and tyres together. A van paid for outright is deducted under the cash basis in the year you buy it, less any share for private use, and once you do that the van stays on real costs; cars never get that treatment.
The early run to the merchant for a pallet of multi, then on to a job, counts as travel for the business. So does driving from home to a changing list of private customers. The risk for a plasterer is the big development: price work on plot after plot of the same site for most of a year can turn that site into your normal workplace, and getting there each morning into ordinary commuting you cannot claim. A run of separate sites, each for weeks, stays business travel.
Keep a mileage log with the date, the site and the miles. In FileThat a mileage entry works out the deduction at the flat rates from the miles alone.
Which journeys count, and choosing between the two methods: can I claim mileage.
CIS and VAT
Plastering for a contractor is CIS
Skimming, rendering and dry lining are part of constructing, altering or repairing a building, so a builder, developer or main contractor who pays you must take 20% off your labour, or 30% if you are not registered, and never off materials. Your turnover is the full amount before the deduction. Enter the figures from each monthly statement the contractor gives you in FileThat, and the tax they have already paid for you comes off what you owe.
Labour only: CIS on the whole payment
When the contractor supplies the board and plaster, everything they pay you is labour, so the deduction comes off the whole payment. That holds whether you are paid by the day, by the square metre or by the plot: price work is still labour. Beads, scrim or adhesive you buy yourself come off first: put them on their own line of the invoice, or the contractor may estimate what they cost and deduct on the rest.
A homeowner's ceiling is not
Homeowners paying for work on their own house are outside CIS altogether: a private skim is paid in full and you settle the tax on it through your return. So are most businesses outside construction, such as a café having a wall rendered, until their spending on construction passes £3 million in any 12 months. Keep site money and private money as separate records.
VAT registered plasterers
Plastering for a VAT-registered contractor who is under CIS usually falls under the domestic reverse charge, so your invoice says so and the contractor accounts for the VAT. In FileThat those sales go under Construction industry - reverse charge sales. Private work for homeowners is invoiced with VAT as normal.
See what you could get back: the CIS refund calculator.
A dryliner's year on new-build plots
Take a plasterer in England who dry lines and skims new-build plots for one developer through 2026-27, moving between its sites every few weeks. The developer supplies the board and plaster, so all £42,000 they pay is labour, and 20% of it, £8,400, goes to HMRC before the rest reaches the bank. Weekend skimming for homeowners brings in £3,000, paid in full, which takes turnover to £45,000.
Expenses for the year: £700 of plaster, beads and scrim bought for the weekend work, £900 of tools (a new mixing drill, trowels and a screw gun), £350 of paddles, screws, tape and compound, £280 of tip charges, 11,000 miles driven for work at the flat rates (£5,500 for the first 10,000 and £250 for the rest), £380 of insurance, £60 to renew the CSCS card, £300 for the work share of the mobile, £150 of masks, knee pads and overalls, and £250 for the accountant. That is £9,120, leaving a profit of £35,880.
The Personal Allowance covers the first £12,570. The other £23,310 is taxed at 20%, which is £4,662, and Class 4 National Insurance takes 6% of it, £1,398.60, so the year's bill is £6,060.60. HMRC already holds the £8,400 the developer deducted, so the refund is £2,339.40.
Because CIS took more than 80% of the year's tax at source, there are no payments on account for the next year either. Leave the £9,120 of costs unrecorded and the refund is gone: tax and National Insurance on a profit of £45,000 come to £8,431.80, so you would owe £31.80 on top of what was taken. In Scotland the Income Tax bands are different, so the numbers there come out slightly differently.
What you cannot claim
A hoodie under the overalls
The overalls are protective. The hoodie, joggers and trainers you wear underneath count as everyday clothes, so they stay private however much plaster ends up on them.
Breakfast on a site job
A bacon roll from the van outside the site is food you would have eaten anyway, so it is not a business cost. Meals count only when the work takes you away overnight or off your normal pattern.
Skimming your own ceiling
Plaster and board for your own house, or for a relative who is not paying you, are private even on the trade account. Record them and mark them disallowable so they stay out of your profit.
Fines and your own tax
A parking ticket outside a site, interest on late tax and what you draw for yourself never come off your profit, and nor do the tax and National Insurance due on it.
More on each: protective clothing, meals away from home and parking tickets.
Straight answers
Does plastering come under CIS?
Yes, when a contractor pays you. Plastering, rendering and dry lining are part of constructing, altering or repairing a building, so a builder, developer or main contractor must deduct 20% from your labour, or 30% if you are not registered with HMRC. Skimming for a homeowner is outside the scheme, because a householder is never a CIS contractor, so you are paid in full and pay the tax through your return.
Do I pay CIS on price work?
Yes. CIS is worked out on the labour in the payment, and it makes no difference whether that labour is priced by the day, by the square metre or by the plot. On labour-only work, where the contractor supplies the board and plaster, the whole payment is labour, so the 20% comes off all of it. Only materials you buy yourself come off first, and if they are not shown on the invoice the contractor may estimate them.
The contractor supplies everything. What can I still claim?
Plenty. Your tools and the spray machine if you own one, paddles, screws and tape, your van or mileage, the CSCS card, insurance, masks and knee pads, your phone and your accountant all still come off your profit. On labour-only work these are usually the only costs between the gross pay and your tax, and they are why most labour-only plasterers get money back when they file.
Can I claim stilts and a mixing drill?
Yes. Both are equipment you use to do the work, recorded as Repairs and maintenance, and under the cash basis, which most sole traders use, each is an expense in the year you pay for it, whatever it cost. Paddles that wear down and sponges you throw away are running costs on top, in Other expenses.
Can I claim clothes ruined by plaster?
Only protective clothing. Overalls, knee pads, safety boots and anything printed with your business name are allowable, and so is washing them. Jeans, joggers and hoodies you could wear anywhere are not, even when plaster ruins them, because they also keep you warm and dressed. The rule is the same for every trade: the clothing has to be there only for the work.
Do self-employed plasterers have to use Making Tax Digital?
If your qualifying income is over the threshold, yes. It has been £50,000 since 6 April 2026, and falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Qualifying income is turnover before expenses from self-employment and property together, and for labour-only site work that means the gross the contractor paid before CIS came off, not what reached your account.
Keep every claim, file it with HMRC
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