The VAT Reverse Charge for Roofers
Written and reviewed by the Roofer Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
If you are a VAT-registered roofer doing work for other construction businesses, the domestic reverse charge changes how you invoice. Since 1 March 2021 you often do not charge VAT on those jobs at all, and it catches roofers out in both directions: charging VAT when you should not, or not accounting for it when you should.
This is when the reverse charge applies to a roofer, who accounts for the VAT, and the one exception that trips people up.
When It Applies to a Roofer
The reverse charge applies where you are VAT-registered and CIS-registered, and you supply standard or reduced-rated construction services to another VAT-registered, CIS-registered business, business to business. In roofing terms that is you subcontracting to a main contractor or a builder who is going to on-supply the work.
When it applies, you do not charge VAT on the invoice. Instead the customer accounts for the VAT themselves, and your invoice carries a line saying the domestic reverse charge applies and the customer must account for the VAT. It covers labour, or labour and materials, but not a materials-only supply.
The End-User Exception
The exception that catches roofers out is the end user. Where your customer is the end user, typically the building's owner or a homeowner who is not selling the construction service on, the reverse charge does not apply and you charge VAT the normal way. So a re-roof invoiced directly to the householder is normal VAT; the same work invoiced to a main contractor is usually reverse charge.
Getting this wrong is common: charging VAT to a contractor who should be accounting for it, or applying the reverse charge to an end user who should have been charged. Either way the VAT return is wrong, which is why the customer's status matters on every job.
What It Does to Your Cash Flow
There is a cash-flow side too. Under the reverse charge you no longer collect VAT from your contractor customers and hold it until the VAT return, so the buffer that used to sit in your account is gone. Some roofers find that tightens cash and reconsider whether the flat rate scheme still suits them.
We handle the invoicing rules, the VAT return entries and the scheme question together, as part of bookkeeping and VAT for roofers. If the reverse charge has made your VAT confusing, tell us how you invoice.