Stopping trading and Personal Tax Question

[LexiLondon]

Hi
Ok this may be a long and confusing post but bare with me.
I have had my limited company for about 5 years and have traded solidly with it. I have not been caught by IR35 and have taken my money as dividends. I only took a certain amount each year ( not a lot, about £30k per year) and left the rest in the company. There is now a pot in the company. I have an accountant and have paid all my corp tax and vat so tax man is up to date.

Right thats the background... heres the questions:

1) I have never paid personal tax or NI. My accountant says as I take money as a divedend I dont need to. I stressed about this and asked him about 3 times but he assures me I dont need to. I am a bit scared of being audited.
Is he correct I dont need to?

2) I am now pregnant and will be stopping work in Aug. I plan to take at least a year off and since I have lost interst in IT I may try get into another line of work when I go back. Would it be better to close the company down or to keep paying annual dividends until the money is all gone and then close it.

I think thats my Q's for now. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[PhilAtBFCA]

Closing a company

LexiLondon

Personal tax

You would have needed to pay personal tax if you had untaxed income. Your dividends already have a tax credit on them, so when you are in the basic rate tax band then you dont pay any further tax, but if you were in the highre rate tax bracket you would have had to file a tax return, and pay further tax.

Closing the Company

The situation here is completly based on your personal circumstances and the amount of money involved. Your accountant should be able to calculate the options which would vary between 0% tax on all the money in the company to much much more than that. You may also want to ask your accountant about the possibility of having maternity pay from the company and how that affects your decision to close the company.

Phil