JTC

JTC · The Construction Industry Joint Taxation Committee

The Joint Taxation Committee (JTC) represents 12 major trade federations operating in construction as a means of jointly lobbying on those tax issues that affect firms in the industry.

The JTC acts a specialist resource to member trade federations providing a source of high quality technical knowledge about all the taxes that apply to construction businesses. It produces guidance for member federations and their members illustrating how good tax compliance can be achieved, and the measures that need to be taken to achieve good record keeping for that compliance.

Current issues under discussion with Government and HMRC are:

the implementation of Reverse Charge VAT,
the Off-Payroll working rules.

Our relationship with trade federations and construction firms gives the JTC a valuable understanding of the pressures and demands placed on construction companies in relation to tax compliance and payment. This experience is vital when lobbying Government and HMRC for those measures which will help firms in the industry meet the requirements placed on them by legislation. It is essential to be able to give examples from day to day business experience and bring forward firms who can give a personal account of how legislation or compliance requirements affect their trade.

The JTC has been instrumental over many years in securing legislation to improve trading conditions. It has contributed to the following:

The VAT legislation which avoids triggering VAT on invoiced amounts at the interim stages of a contract,
The VAT legislation the allows a reduced rate of VAT for the conversion of commercial property into dwellings,
The legislation that provided the reduced rate of VAT for dwellings converted to a greater or a lesser number of units,
The legislation that provides tax relief for the costs of traveling and subsistence for workers on site for less than two years,
The development and introduction of the tax dashboard.

The Joint Tax Committee of Construction was founded in 1966 by the two trade federations predominant in the industry at the time as a means of jointly lobbying on those tax issues that affected their members. It quickly developed into a specialist resource and source of high quality technical knowledge about all the taxes that impinge on construction and how commercial practice could be controlled to allow good compliance.

In 2009 it became a wholly independent body and its membership greatly expanded to twelve federations ranging from those representing the large main contractors to federations representing the specialist trades and one-man businesses.

Liz is the secretary of the JTC and has been in post since 1990. She began her career with HMRC on their fast track scheme training graduate inspectors to take charge of local tax offices. She managed a local office, moved to tax a major bank and then went on to work on international issues in a policy role. In 1990 she left HMRC to become Head of Tax at the then Building Employers Confederation (BEC) and to run the Joint Tax Committee as it’s Secretary.

Since then Liz has become very well known to many in Construction for her teaching on topical tax issues and her help to members of the JTC in trouble with their tax affairs. As Head of Tax at the Construction Confederation she had led the JTC in many negotiations and discussions with HMRC on legislative change.

She has seen two major rewrites of the CIS Scheme, the introduction of the reduced rate bands for various construction work, the introduction of Landfill Levy and Aggregates Tax, and now the introduction of Reverse Charge VAT.

Liz is known for her common sense and friendly approach to those in the industry experiencing problems. Her guidance and help is aimed at a construction readership. It is easy to understand and clear to apply whenever the legislation itself makes that possible!

The JTC also produces a monthly newsletter available to all its members, which details the tax changes that are imminent and important, and also warns members of the "bear-traps" currently being encountered by firms in the industry.