Self Operated Childcare Voucher Scheme - Ltd Co

Billy-the-Bunter

Hi There,

I've been trawling the internet for a long time on this subject and i can't seem to get a straightforward answer. I own a limited company, i am the sole director and shareholder. I take a basic salary and draw dividends which put me over the higher rate threshold. My wife's salary is under the higher rate threshold. I am about to embark on setting up a self operated childcare voucher scheme. Yes, the nursery is ofsted registered.

From what I read, in my situation I can provide myself 'the director' with the maximum allowable amount of childcare vouchers, i.e. £243 per month which I pay directly to the Nursery from my company's bank account. This is providing that I have in place all qualifying documentation etc. Am i correct in saying that when determining wether i myself qualify for the full childcare i do not have to included the amount of annual dividend that i take?

The next issue is that to determine wether one qualify's for child benefit it would seem that you need to include the dividend and basic salary in your income calculation. which in my case means that i do not qualify for child benefit. This seems to be the general consensus in most contractor forums. This is why I question the exclusion of income from limited company dividends when determining wether I qualify for the full amount of childcare vouchers.

These questions come up on forums all the time but no one seems to be able to provide definitive answers to both childcare voucher and child benefit queries for individuals operating a limited company in this way.

Can anyone help? Has anyone been through this? Does anyone no the actual answer on this?