Tax questions

buzzby

Just a couple of questions. My accountant is away.
We are a limited company of 4 directors. Someone was telling us about paying dividends. They were saying these should be paid quarterly. We've been paying fortnightly. Is this a problem?
Also fuel. What happens about claiming that back. Someone said we can claim 100% back as a limited company. But this doesn't sound right to me.

Pennywise

None of this is so urgent that it can't wait until your accountant returns. Make an appointment and go through these issues with them.

buzzby wrote: »

Someone was telling us about paying dividends. They were saying these should be paid quarterly. We've been paying fortnightly. Is this a problem?

Have you been preparing management accounts and corporation tax computations every two weeks to prove the amount of distributable post tax reserves available to cover the dividends and preparing minutes of the directors meeting to approve the dividend and dividend vouchers to confirm the tax credit etc? If you've complied with the law and tax regs (as above), then fortnightly is fine. Most firms won't do all that, which is why they do it less frequently.

buzzby wrote: »

Also fuel. What happens about claiming that back. Someone said we can claim 100% back as a limited company. But this doesn't sound right to me.

Does the limited company own the vehicles or are they owned personally by each of you? Company paying for fuel is fine, but you do realise that the company has to declare it as a taxable benefit in kind on P11d forms and pay NIC on the benefit, and each of you personally would have to pay income tax on the scale benefit charge - often the tax and NIC is more than the tax savings on the company paying for the fuel.