In the early days of a business, it may be advisable to pay yourself a small salary, even if your company cannot really justify the cost. The reason is tax relief. And, as tax reliefs are linked to tax years and as tax years end every 5 April, once the tax year has gone the opportunity to get the tax relief is lost.
This example uses 2020/21 figures.
Paying a salary from a company is an allowable expense. All things being equal, your company will get 19% tax relief on that. And so, for every £1,000 you pay in salary, your company tax bill is reduced by £190.
In the hands of the company director, the salary is taxable income. However, as there is an annual allowance for personal income, you may be able to take a salary and pay no income tax.
• Monthly salary £732.00
• Annualised £8,784.00
• Corporation tax relief £1,668.96
• Income tax bill £nil
It’s worth a lot of money to your company to take a salary. And if that means orchestrating a loss in the company this year, you can still carry forward the loss, and get the tax relief when the company next has a profit. You cannot carry forward unused personal allowances, and that is why you need the salary in any given tax year.
In some cases that means that the director introduces working capital to a company every month, so that it can pay the salary – in effect, moving about £750 around in circles. That’s OK. The director can receive the salary tax free, and at some point in the future (when the company has the cash) the director can recover all the multiples of £750 which have been loaned to the company.
And it has to actually happen! You cannot say “it happened” at a later stage, if it did not! HMRC have been known to ask for the bank statements to see the exact amounts and the dates on which the bank transfers took place!
It might be worth it, if it saves you around £1,700 per year overall!