Landscape Gardener using subcontractors - CIS Scheme?
A client of mine is a Landscape Gardener who carries out Estate & gardens management. He uses subcontractors for any HARD landscaping work. Per CIS340 Tree Planting & landscaping in the course of forestry or estate management are not constructions operations" but does this extend to the work my client subcontracts?
Certainly 99% (if not all) of the work is NEVER part of a bigger construction or housebuilding project or contract, its just work carried out for the public who may wish to re-landcape, replace a patio, build new or repair a wall etc.
Within CIS
CISR14200, to which you have referred, lists as "Within CIS":
"the construction of walls, drives, patios and suchlike, as part of ‘routine landscaping’, as these operations will be caught by FA04/S74 (2)(b), as ‘works forming … part of the land’"
That is very clear and is not cancelled by the exclusion which you have quoted. Your client will not be a CIS sub-contractor if he works for private homeowners, because they are specifically excluded from being contractors, but he is a CIS contractor himself in relation to the sub-contractors whom he uses for the hard landscaping. It is no different to (say) kitchen fitters - the contract between the homeowner and the fitter is outside CIS, but if the fitter has a mate, that mate is a sub-contractor within CIS (if he is not an employee).
P.S. Awarding yourself Best Reply is a bit cheeky!
Caught
Landscaping in general is caught by CIS http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/cisrmanual/CISR14240.htm
Laying of paths and patios is certainly caught