CISR67630 - Monthly return:
temporarily inactive schemes: how to set and unset inactivity
Inactivity can be requested in the following ways
- By ticking box 8 on page 4 of a
paper-based contractor’s monthly return
- By checking the relevant box under the
declarations section of a return filed electronically
- By telephone (See first paragraph of
CISR67640 before reading further)
- By correspondence
If you are satisfied that a period of inactivity can be set,
this is how you do it.
- Identify the customer (you will need either a UTR, NINO,
Accounts Office reference or Employer Reference)
- Authenticate the customer (see
CISR20000 for more details here)
- Select the scheme you wish to check from the list in the top
panel. (Typically there will be just one entry here, but remember
that contractors can have more than one scheme)
- From the main CIS menu, select ‘Update Customer ’.
This will take you to the ‘designatory details’ window.
- Scroll down and select ‘next’. This will take you
to the ‘scheme details’ window.
- Enter the relevant date in the inactivity start date boxes at
the top right of the window (that is, under the
‘subcontractor first paid’ line). The format to use is
DD/MM/YYYY. DD will always be 06 here. The default date will be 06
of the current period. The inactivity period start date is the 6th
of the current month. So, if today’s date is 23 May, the
start date is 6th May. You
cannot set a retrospective inactivity period start
date. That is, one prior to the current month.
- Enter the relevant date in the inactivity end date boxes. The
format to use is DD/MM/YYYY. DD will always be 05 here. The
inactivity period end date will be five periods on from the current
period. So, if today’s date is 23 May, period 1 is 6th May to
5th June. Period 6 is therefore 6th October to 5th November.
Remember the only period appropriate to a requested period of
inactivity is six months at a time. There is only one exception to
this. See
important note 2 at
CISR67010 for more information.
- Scroll down and select the ‘OK’ button. This takes
you back to the CIS main menu. Output of returns to the scheme will
now be inhibited for the period of inactivity set.
If you are satisfied that a period of inactivity can be
unset, take the following steps.
- Follow steps 1-5 above, then
- Simply change the inactivity end date to the month immediately
preceding the month for which subcontractors are re-engaged by the
contractor to re-activate the scheme. So where subcontractors are
re-engaged from 15/10/2010 the Inactivity end date would need to be
changed to 05/10/2010. This will then ensure that a monthly return
for the period to 05/11/2010 is issued to the contractor.
- Scroll down and select ‘next’, then
‘OK’ at the ‘scheme agent’ window. This
will take you back to the CIS main menu.
- If inactivity ceased at a date in the past, you will now need
to consider either the manual or pre-populated issue of returns for
the periods previously covered by the inactivity indicators. See
CISR62630 for the manual issue of
returns, or go to step 7 of the action guide at
CISR62640 for the issued of replacement
pre- populated returns. Finally, it should be remembered that
‘unseting’ inactive periods will result in penalties
being issued for missing returns, so should be done only after much
consideration.
