Limited company, how to pay yourself!

adamjw3

I'm starting to work for myself
I've set up a limited company with https://www.gov.uk.

I want to do most of the accounts myself as its just me and i'll be on projects for a minimum 3 months at a time invoicing the same person so not much to keep track of.

however i want to take advantage of as much tax benefits as i can so wanted to pay myself via PAYE (pay my national insurance, pension etc) then take anything else out via dividends.

Any advise on setting up PAYE and managing it myself and just getting an accountant to do the end of year stuff?

Brynsam

HMRC's free payroll software is a doddle to use. https://www.gov.uk/basic-paye-tools

Sounds as if a session with an accountant before you do anything else would be a good idea.

ACG

Why not pay for an hour with an accountant?
You can ask about other things you can declare as legitimate expenses. Do you put your car through or mileage, can you declare any of your gas/leccy bills? What about mobile phone/broadband etc?

trailingspouse

You have a limited company. The fact that it's 'just you' doesn't change that.



So I have three pieces of advice -

1) find an accountant
2) find an accountant
3) find an accountant


There's a fair chance they will save you what they cost you. I do all the bookkeeping for our company - but I still have an accountant do the end-of-year accounts. And they're on the end of the phone if you have a question, which is worth its weight in gold.

ThemeOne

In my opinion an accountant will only save you what they cost you if you are totally clueless and unable or unwilling to do any research yourself. It is, for example, very easy to find out what you can claim as legitimate expenses (and mostly common sense as well).

Also if the accountant does everything, you'll learn nothing yourself, so just have to trust them - you will never really know whether they're doing a good job for you or not.

It's up to you. There are plenty of good accountants around for small limited companies, but also plenty of lazy and indifferent ones too.

I agree about using Basic PAYE Tools for PAYE - it's easy to operate and submits back to HMRC as you go, so you won't usually have to worry about annual PAYE returns. It also automatically produces a P60 for your tax returns.

gettingtheresometime

ThemeOne wrote: »

In my opinion an accountant will only save you what they cost you if you are totally clueless and unable or unwilling to do any research yourself. It is, for example, very easy to find out what you can claim as legitimate expenses (and mostly common sense as well).

Also if the accountant does everything, you'll learn nothing yourself, so just have to trust them - you will never really know whether they're doing a good job for you or not.

It's up to you. There are plenty of good accountants around for small limited companies, but also plenty of lazy and indifferent ones too.

I agree about using Basic PAYE Tools for PAYE - it's easy to operate and submits back to HMRC as you go, so you won't usually have to worry about annual PAYE returns. It also automatically produces a P60 for your tax returns.

Our accountant saved us a shed load of tax for his under £1k fee. He's also dealt with HMRC for us saving us time & grief.

I would agree that one that is recommended is far better than one plucked out of the telephone directory.