Limited co & pregnant girlfriend/employee

[chris79]

Me, Director.

Girlfriend, Co. Secretary with 50% shareholding.


She's due to give birth in June, what is the situation here from an employment perspective, should I be giving her maternity leave from my own company, does the government contribute at all?

Also I only pay her for doing my books and a few other small bits of contract work (admin) we get from someone we know. With the income shifting situation coming up in April I'm looking to get her to sell her 50% shareholding back to me, how easy is this to do?

Thanks in advance.

[Ardesco]

Get your accountant to do it. He will work out what she is entitled to and be able to fill in the forms for HMRC to get statutory maternity pay etc. You will also need to provide him with a MATB1, your midwife should be able to give it to you.

[malvolio]

Transfer of shares is easy as well. There's a form you get from Companies House that covers all the variations, one of which is a free transfer (which is the one I used some years ago). Again, ask your accountant.

[chris79]

I don't have an accountant as such in fear of MSC/debt transfer laws, I do all my own books/accounts, but I've just had a good read through HMRC's website regarding SMP and I think I'll give them a call first before going to an accountant.

Cheers!

[Ardesco]

Having an accountant will not get you classified as an MSC and a decent accountant will save you a lot of money.

Get an accountant now, it will be worth it.

[malvolio]

I don't have an accountant as such in fear of MSC/debt transfer laws, I do all my own books/accounts, but I've just had a good read through HMRC's website regarding SMP and I think I'll give them a call first before going to an accountant.

Cheers!

Which is the best justification I've ever read for getting an accountant. Mr Bullet, meet Mr Foot.

[chris79]

Well the truth is I have an accountant, but I've not used him as yet. I'm in my first year of running my own limited and so far I've done everything myself which in all honesty has been a useful learning curve.

It's coming up to end of year for my co in April, so I'm probably going to get my accountant to do this, he has suggested a charge of approx £400-500 to do my end of year, is this reasonable? He says it's a case of just handing over my sage accounts on a pendrive and he will do the rest.

I'm all for doing everything I can myself, as I prefer to be in absolute control of the situation, I've heard of people getting f**ked over etc because their accountant screwed up. So far it has been far from rocket science, but people keep telling me the end of year is the tricky one.

[Ardesco]

Basic accounts isn't rocket science. What you pay the accountant for is his in depth understanding of taxation legislation and how it can be used to ensure you make as much profit as possible.

A good accountant will save you more money than he charges.

[moorfield]

It's coming up to end of year for my co in April, so I'm probably going to get my accountant to do this, he has suggested a charge of approx £400-500 to do my end of year, is this reasonable? He says it's a case of just handing over my sage accounts on a pendrive and he will do the rest.

You would be unwise not to use an accountant, and £400-500 sounds good for doing year end accounts.

I'm all for doing everything I can myself, as I prefer to be in absolute control of the situation, I've heard of people getting f**ked over etc because their accountant screwed up. So far it has been far from rocket science, but people keep telling me the end of year is the tricky one.

People get f**ked over because generally speaking they don't keep their own records and reconcile back to what their accountants are doing - which they should do. My accountants screwed up a few of my monthly divi calculations and my annual accounts last year - I would not have spotted this without checking my own records. But I'm still happy for them to do the basics, particularly payroll / PAYE / NI calculations which always seem a mystery to me.

[malvolio]

Well the truth is I have an accountant, but I've not used him as yet. I'm in my first year of running my own limited and so far I've done everything myself which in all honesty has been a useful learning curve.

It's coming up to end of year for my co in April, so I'm probably going to get my accountant to do this, he has suggested a charge of approx £400-500 to do my end of year, is this reasonable? He says it's a case of just handing over my sage accounts on a pendrive and he will do the rest.

I'm all for doing everything I can myself, as I prefer to be in absolute control of the situation, I've heard of people getting f**ked over etc because their accountant screwed up. So far it has been far from rocket science, but people keep telling me the end of year is the tricky one.

So what you're saying is that you are new to the game and clearly have minimal understanding of some of the complexities (hence my earlier post - you haen't even understood the MSC rules), so you are refusing to get expert and qualified advice on how it works becuase you'd rather f*** it up all by yourself.

Well, OK, it's one way to do it. Can we assume you will take the same approach on Payment on Account for next year, depreciation allowances on capital, the upcoming Family Business Tax and all the other little trivia? Because get any of them wrong and you will lose thousands. Running a business is a little more complex than maintaining a General Ledger.