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Case Study

Tax Sorted

Brand, website, and lead generation for a CIS tax refund service aimed at construction subcontractors.

Brand Website Acquisition
Tax Sorted website displayed on a laptop showing the CIS refund calculator

The Challenge

Reaching subcontractors who don't know they're owed money

Construction subcontractors under the CIS scheme have 20% deducted from every payment. Many are owed refunds they never claim. The hard part isn't the tax work. It's reaching people who don't realise they're owed anything.

Tax Sorted had nothing: no brand, no website, no pipeline. And the market already has established names like RIFT Refunds spending heavily on ads.

Our Approach

Make the refund tangible before the conversation starts

Most tax refund sites lead with "we handle your tax". That's vague and forgettable. We built Tax Sorted around one idea: show people what they're owed before asking them to do anything.

The CIS refund calculator on the homepage lets a subcontractor enter their earnings and see an estimated refund in seconds. That number is what gets them to act. The brand, the content, the whole site exists to get people to that calculator.

01 — Brand

Everyone else is red, green, or blue

We looked at every major CIS refund competitor. Reds (RIFT), greens (Tax Returned, CIS Made Easy), dark blues. Nobody was using amber or orange.

Amber has a natural connection to construction: hi-vis, hard hats, safety gear. It feels right for the audience without being forced. Paired with dark navy, Tax Sorted looks established from day one.

Tax Sorted mobile experience — CIS refund calculator on a smartphone alongside construction equipment

02 — Website

Calculator first, everything else second

The homepage puts the refund calculator above the fold. No waffle. Enter your numbers, see what you're owed.

Below that, the site answers the obvious questions: How does it work? What does it cost? Is it legit? Each section moves the visitor closer to starting a claim.

Built as a static Astro site for speed. Tradespeople browse on their phones between jobs. It needs to load fast.

03 — Acquisition

Finding customers who don't know they need you

Subcontractors don't search for "CIS tax refund service". They search for "how much tax do I get back on CIS" or "do subcontractors get tax refunds". We built the content around what people actually type into Google.

The lead capture flow takes someone from the calculator to a qualified enquiry in under two minutes. No forms with 15 fields. No friction.

Tax Sorted three-step process — Calculate, Submit Documents, Get Refund

What We Delivered

What we delivered

Brand Identity

Name, logo, colour system, typography, and brand guidelines built on competitive colour gap analysis.

Website

Static Astro site with CIS refund calculator, responsive design, and pages structured to convert.

Acquisition System

SEO content targeting the searches subcontractors actually make, plus a lead capture flow with automated follow-up.

Content Strategy

Blog plan built around what construction workers actually search for, with a publishing schedule to match.

Launching something new?

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