Deposits on Big Jobs Count When You're Paid, Not When the Job Finishes
Driveway and paving jobs are typically quoted as a total price with a deposit taken before work starts, sometimes with a further stage payment partway through larger jobs. Under the cash basis, which most sole traders use, each payment counts as income when you receive it — a deposit taken in one quarter for a job completed the next is reported in the quarter you were actually paid.
Materials Are a Significant Share of Every Quote
Block paving, resin, tarmac, and sub-base materials represent a substantial portion of most driveway quotes. Your qualifying income is the full quoted price, materials and labour combined, before deducting what you paid your builders' merchant. Contractors who also subcontract under CIS for developers on larger housing schemes follow the standard gross-income rule: qualifying income assessed before the contractor's deduction.
Worked Example
Casey. Self-employed driveway contractor doing direct residential quotes, plus CIS subcontracting for a housing developer laying estate driveways.
Direct residential jobs (gross, including materials): £32,600
CIS subcontract labour on estate driveways (gross, before 20% deduction): £11,400 Total qualifying income: £44,000 — above the £30,000 Phase 2 threshold, below £50,000. Casey joins MTD from April 2027. Deposits taken on residential jobs are recorded as income when received, which sometimes means a big deposit in March counts in a different quarter to the job itself, completed the following month.
