Do we have to take a salary?

fishybusiness

@reason,

Yes I am sure.

OP was talking about salaries, and maybe not in the first year. Any salary is indicative of deductions of NI and Tax, those alone will define the requirement for ELI.

Directors as Office Holders, taking no salary will be exempt.

It's more complicated than that...accepted, but the HSE will prosecute if a business gets it wrong, so read the small print carefully.

It's here for clarification.....

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse40.pdf

companies employing only their owner where that employee also owns 50% or
more of the issued share capital in the company.

Not relevant as OP suggested 2 directors, the second changes things.

Mojisola

eclipse1989 wrote: »

My partner and I are looking to start our own business in the very near future. To begin with, it will only be at evenings/weekends and we will both continue to work full time for the time being.

Are you employing other people to do the work or are you going to be the employees of the company?

antrobus

firefox1956 wrote: »

You should have taken on an accountant BEFORE you decided to set up a Limited Company......it might not have been the best thing to do.
( Bit late now though !! )

No it isn't.

My partner and I are looking to start our own business in the very near future.

So they haven't started trading through the company yet. It's been set up in preparation for their upcoming business.

It's not uncommon for people to set up limited companies and then not use them. Granted, it would mean that the cost of setting up the company would be wasted. £12 if you do it online. A bit more if you use an agent. But there are agents who will do it for a tenner or even less.

But they should still get themselves an accountant. Preferably a proper one with letters after their name.