CIS is deducted at 20% or 30% from your very first pound, with no personal allowance applied at source. Almost every subcontractor ends up overpaying during the year — DayGraft estimates exactly how much, free, right inside the app.
Your personal allowance (£12,570) and the actual tax bands aren't applied when CIS is deducted — the contractor just takes a flat 20% or 30% off your labour. That's almost always more than you actually owe once your real tax and National Insurance are worked out properly.
DayGraft's refund estimate shows the full working: turnover, expenses and mileage deducted, taxable profit, personal allowance, income tax, Class 4 National Insurance, and how much CIS has already come off — then the balance, in green if you're owed money back.
There's nothing extra to fill in. The estimate is calculated automatically from the days, expenses and mileage you log in DayGraft as you go — for both Full Tracking and Simple Hours.
Scottish income tax bands are genuinely different from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Set your region once in Settings and the estimate uses the correct bands and threshold for where you live.
The refund estimate is available on the free plan. You don't need to subscribe to see whether you're likely owed money back.
It depends entirely on your income, expenses and mileage for the tax year — there's no single number that applies to everyone. A subcontractor earning around £45,000 with typical expenses is commonly owed somewhere between £1,500 and £3,000, but DayGraft calculates your own figure from your own logged records rather than a generic estimate.
DayGraft's estimate uses the real 2026/27 tax bands, personal allowance, and Class 4 National Insurance rates, and correctly excludes materials from the CIS-deductible amount. It's still an estimate for guidance — it assumes self-employment is your only income and that everything's been logged — so it's a strong starting point, not a substitute for your accountant or Self Assessment.
No. CIS refunds are claimed through your own Self Assessment tax return, which you or an accountant can file directly with HMRC. Refund companies typically take 25–35% of what you're owed for doing this on your behalf — DayGraft's estimate is designed to help you see the number yourself, for free, so you can decide whether you need that help at all.
Yes — set your actual CIS rate in Settings and the estimate uses it. If you're on 30% because you're not CIS-registered, the numbers are usually the strongest argument for registering, since you're having considerably more deducted than a registered subcontractor doing identical work.
Nothing extra. It uses the days, expenses and mileage you're already logging to run the app day to day. There's no separate tax questionnaire to fill in.
Yes, it's part of DayGraft's free plan — no subscription or trial required to see your estimate.
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