Pay a sub without inheriting their tax bill

Register each subcontractor against the withholding scheme with the band their evidence supports, the reference of the signed form and the date it was given. The band is what decides the rate, so it is the field to get right rather than a note in the file.

Why: The scheme's default band is the one that deducts. That is the part people are caught by: an unrecorded sub is not an open question the system will ask you about later, they are already at the full rate. Recording the standing while somebody is onboarding them costs a minute. Establishing it on payment day costs the payment.

Record what each subcontractor carries and when it runs out. General liability, workers compensation, auto and umbrella are separate policies with separate dates, and so are payment, performance and bid bonds, so they are recorded separately rather than as one tick for insurance.

Why: A certificate never fails loudly. It lapses on a date, and the first person to notice is usually the one who needed it: the adjuster after an incident, or whoever is signing the pay run. Filing one date per policy is what turns that from a discovery into a reminder.

Watch the recorded dates with a warning window wide enough to chase a renewal, so a policy about to run out appears next to everything else the job owes a date, rather than in a folder somebody has to remember to open.

Why: An expired certificate is not a closed item, it is the most urgent open one, and a list that treats it as finished is worse than no list. The point of the window is to move the work from the twenty-fifth of the month to a day when a phone call is still enough.

Take the gross for the period, set aside whatever the scheme leaves out of the base, apply the band the sub's standing puts them in, and record the deduction against the payment. When it is remitted, keep the reference on the same record.

Why: Two things get confused here and both cost money. The base is not the invoice total, and different schemes leave different parts out of it. And this is not retainage: what is deducted goes to the authority, the subcontractor reclaims it through their own return, and it does not come back from you. Telling a sub you are holding it is the fastest way to a dispute over money you no longer have.

Release the payment showing the gross, the deduction and the net as separate figures rather than as one adjusted number, so the sub can see what was taken and reclaim it without asking you to reconstruct it.

Why: The question always comes back, and it comes back months later from somebody's accountant rather than from the person you dealt with. A payment that carries its own arithmetic is answered by opening it. A net figure with no working behind it is answered by a morning of somebody's time, every time it is asked.