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Directors – how to turn a salary trap into a tax advantage

20/04/2017

If you need a little extra cash you might be tempted to take some additional cash from your company’s bank account. HMRC might argue that the money should be subject to tax and NI as salary. How can you counter this?

Director’s loan

The only director and shareholder of a company, came under fire from HMRC because he used his company’s bank account to make payments to the building firm which was adding an extension to his home. The maximum he borrowed at one time was £12,000 and all the money was repaid during the same tax year and just two months after the company’s accounting year ended. Their accountant reported the arrangement as a loan although there was no formal paperwork to prove it.

HMRC’s salary trap

The tax inspector reviewing the company’s accounts took a different view to the accountant. He suggested that the payments were additional salary on which the company should have accounted for PAYE tax plus employees’ and employers’ NI. If the inspector was right, the extra tax and NI due would be significant.

Example. The company’s accounts were prepared showing that at the year end the director owed £12,000 to his company. The accountant’s view was that the £12,000 was an interest-free loan which gave rise to a taxable benefit in kind (BiK). The accountant worked out that the tax payable by the director on this would amount to less than £100. This BiK was reported on Form P11D and our subscriber declared it on his tax return.

Tax enquiry

Based on what he saw in the company’s accounts and Form P11D, the tax inspector started an enquiry and issued a demand for PAYE tax and NI on the £12,000 drawn by the director. This ran to several thousand pounds. Naturally, the director appealed, but the inspector dug his heels in and pressed for full payment.

HMRC’s view

According to the inspector, his view is backed up by legislation which says any payment made by a company to or on behalf of a director that can be construed as “money or money’s worth” counts as pay and PAYE must be applied. We’ve seen this argument before and while it’s difficult to dispute the logic in practice, HMRC’s official guidance takes a partially different view.

Tip 1. If an inspector suggests that payment of a personal bill by your company is subject to PAYE tax, firstly point him to HMRC’s guide for employers, Booklet CWG2. This says that such an arrangement is a BiK and so not subject to PAYE tax. But the bad news is that it counts as salary for NI purposes meaning both employers’ and employees’ contributions are due. Tip 2. You can avoid NI by arranging for personal bills to be invoiced in your company’s name instead of yours. This dodges the “money’s worth” trap because when your company pays the bill it’s meeting its own debt not yours. What’s more, if you reimburse your company for the bills within a reasonable time, say three months after the tax year in which it paid them, you won’t be taxed on a BiK. In effect you’ll have had tax and NI-free use of company money.

If your company pays a personal bill for you, Class 1 NI is payable as if the company paid you an equivalent amount of salary. Plus, you’ll pay tax on a benefit in kind equal to the value of the bill. NI and tax can be avoided entirely if you arrange for bills to be sent in the name of your company and you later reimburse it.