Payroll & CIS Services in Kent

Getting payroll wrong or missing a CIS deadline is an admin headache, and it affects people's pay. In construction, a mistake with subcontractor verification or deductions can mean HMRC penalties landing on your desk months after the work's already done. If you're running a limited company in Kent with staff on the payroll, subcontractors under CIS, or both, you need this handled by people who do it every month, not squeezed in alongside everything else.

That's what our payroll and CIS service is built around. We keep your staff paid correctly and on time, and where CIS applies, we keep your subcontractor payments compliant too, so a rule change or missed verification never catches you out. The full details of what's covered, from RTI and pension auto-enrolment through to CIS returns, are set out further down the page.

Cherrytree Nursery, an Ashford nursery with 40 staff across two sites, wanted clearer payroll reporting and simpler holiday pay calculations. Years of small changes to its systems had left it due an overhaul. Swift updated the payroll software to speed up hours processing and reduce errors, simplified staff contracts and holiday pay with advice from HR specialists, and set up payslips to go out automatically as password-protected PDFs. The result was around four days a month saved in staff administration time, fewer errors and a clearer view of spending across both sites.

• Payroll and CIS is run by a dedicated team who handle it every month
• Subcontractor verification and monthly CIS returns are managed properly, so compliance isn't left to chance
• Staff are paid accurately and on time, every time, with secure access to payroll records
• Clear answers in plain English if HMRC rules ever affect you
• Based in Kent, with face-to-face meetings always on offer

Payroll covers paying your staff correctly and on time, including calculating pay, deductions, and statutory payments; submitting Real Time Information (RTI) to HMRC; and managing pension auto-enrolment obligations. Getting this right matters for more than compliance; staff who are paid incorrectly or late lose confidence quickly, and fixing payroll errors after the fact is far more burdensome than doing it properly the first time.

Where a business also pays subcontractors, the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) sits alongside payroll. Under CIS, contractors must deduct tax from payments to subcontractors and pass it to HMRC, with the deduction rate depending on whether a subcontractor is properly registered and verified. Getting verification wrong, or missing a monthly CIS return deadline, has real financial consequences, not just for your business, but for the subcontractors you pay.

Under HMRC's Construction Industry Scheme rules, subcontractors who aren't registered or verified correctly are deducted at 30%, compared to 20% for those who are properly registered, a 10 percentage point difference that directly affects a subcontractor's take-home pay if verification isn't handled correctly.

If your business also needs support with VAT or your annual accounts, take a look at VAT Returns & Advice or Limited Company Accounts, which includes your personal tax return as a director. If you're a sole trader, see Self Assessment Tax Returns.