Discussion
What are the rules/tax implications on paying weekly dividends to Directors of a Ltd Company, where PAYE is in place. Ie. is it better to pay a lower rate of salary and a weekly/monthly dividend, on the basis that PAYE is calculated on the lower salary.
Any advice is much appreciated.
Steve
Any advice is much appreciated.
Steve
The Inland Revenue frown on shareholders taking dividends too frequently (read weekly or monthly). I usually recommend to my clients that they take diviends no more than quarterly.
A dividend is not a payyment or reward for the work you do in your company, it is a distribution of the company profits. Therefore, you should really be mindful of the profitability of the company before declaring a dividend. Therfore, you have to make sure that there are sufficient profits and/or reserves in the company to allow a dividend to be paid. If dividends turn out to be excessive, you will have contravened the Companies Act and could be subject to prosecution by Companies House. At the every least the company will be liable to a Section 419 tax liability from the Inland Revenue.
Since March 2004, dividends automatically attract a Corporation Tax liability of 19% of the value of the dividends. This liability is part of the company tax bill at the end of the financial year. It could result in companies having to pay Corporation Tax in a year when it may not have made any profits. This could happen if the dividends were being paid out of accumulated profits built up in earlier years - which no doubt would have been subject to Corpoartion Tax in those earlier years anyway.
A perfect example of Gordon taxing the same monies twice.
A dividend is not a payyment or reward for the work you do in your company, it is a distribution of the company profits. Therefore, you should really be mindful of the profitability of the company before declaring a dividend. Therfore, you have to make sure that there are sufficient profits and/or reserves in the company to allow a dividend to be paid. If dividends turn out to be excessive, you will have contravened the Companies Act and could be subject to prosecution by Companies House. At the every least the company will be liable to a Section 419 tax liability from the Inland Revenue.
Since March 2004, dividends automatically attract a Corporation Tax liability of 19% of the value of the dividends. This liability is part of the company tax bill at the end of the financial year. It could result in companies having to pay Corporation Tax in a year when it may not have made any profits. This could happen if the dividends were being paid out of accumulated profits built up in earlier years - which no doubt would have been subject to Corpoartion Tax in those earlier years anyway.
A perfect example of Gordon taxing the same monies twice.
The other thing to keep in mind is what you want your company's profits to show at company house. If your company shows a very high profit (because you've decided to pay yourself by dividend, rather than salary or bonus), then customers / employees / suppliers may read things into this. As such, there may be "commercial sensitivites". One of my clients keeps his profit down to just 4% by paying himself large bonuses, because his clients often make a cursory check on his company's results. If he showed the real profit (about 25% net) they wouldn't pay his prices! He's happy to take a bit of a hit on Tax to maintain the commercial advantage.
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