Next years salary?

[LondonManc]

Yes - and remember if you got 5 contractors and their accountants in the room, 10 people in total, you'd probably get 18 opinions. Worse than economists.

I pay my accountant to get me the best deal. If I wanted a strong opinion on it I'd have picked accountancy instead of IT. It'll be interesting to see where the sliding scale stops and if there are two markedly different figures for single person contractors and those whose spouse is company secretary. Perhaps there will be some benefit in paying more PAYE via my limited company but that's what I'm paying my accountant to figure out.

As northernladuk said, I'd expect them to get their spreadsheets out and run a few scenarios to see what comes out best for us.

[Wijay@WISAccountancy]

Knock knock accountant here...

I did some numbers and as per my workings Optimal salary (if you do not qualify for Employer allowance) is £11,000 for FY 2016/17. Happy to share the excel if anyone is interested.
Also if your spouse is high earner not worth paying Dividend currently but from 2015/16 you can pay unto 5K without incurring any tax.

[northernladuk]

I did some numbers and as per my workings Optimal salary (if you do not qualify for Employer allowance) is £8,060 for FY 2016/17. Happy to share the excel if anyone is interested.
Also if your spouse is high earner not worth paying Dividend currently but from 2015/16 you can pay unto 5K without incurring any tax.

I'm an idiot.

[WordIsBond]

(Sigh) Only if she does 5k of work of course......

Dividends, he said. Spouse doesn't have to work in the company to own shares and get divs.

[northernladuk]

Dividends, he said. Spouse doesn't have to work in the company to own shares and get divs.

Quite right. I read the not worth paying dividends bit incorrectly

[Wijay@WISAccountancy]

Need to look at the detail report...

Lot of questions still outstanding, whether personal allowance can be used against Dividends or just Dividend allowance allowed...
Anyways time to clear inbox with client queries on Budget 2015.

[stek]

What if I convert to Islam, get me five wives, can I spread the load over them and I mean the salary/divvies here...

[WordIsBond]

Lot of questions still outstanding, whether personal allowance can be used against Dividends or just Dividend allowance allowed...

That's probably the biggest outstanding question of what has been definitely announced. If your only income is dividends, do you get £5K, £11K, or £16K tax-free? The first is probably untenable. But they could do the second. The statement didn't read like that, but it isn't clear enough to be certain.

[cosmos]

... (assuming YourCo is eligible for the Employment Allowance).

As someone whos "reading up" on it all and hasn't yet appointed an accountant or set up a Ltd company (all in due course), can you elaborate on this employment allowance, what it is and where I can read more about it.

Thanks

[Eirikur]

What if I convert to Islam, get me five wives, can I spread the load over them and I mean the salary/divvies here...

What's the tax threshold in IS? Would they need contractors and what is the going rate without losing my head?