Limited company tax

Every tax your limited company touches, in one place.

Corporation tax on the profit, income tax and National Insurance on what you take out, VAT once you cross the threshold, and the director's loan rules that catch the money in between. Each topic below links to the full guide and the calculator that goes with it, on 2026/27 rates.

Questions

Limited company tax, answered.

What taxes does a UK limited company actually pay?

Corporation tax on its profit, employer National Insurance on wages it pays, VAT once it is registered, and business rates if it occupies premises. The company's owners then pay income tax personally on salary and dividends taken out of it.

Is it better to take salary or dividends?

Most owner-directors take a modest salary up to a National Insurance threshold and the rest as dividends, because dividends carry no National Insurance. The right split depends on your other income, whether the employment allowance is available and what you want the company to retain, so it is worth modelling rather than copying a rule of thumb.

Why is money I took out of my own company taxed?

A limited company is a separate legal person and its money is not yours until it is paid out as salary, a dividend or a repayment of what you lent it. Anything else sits in a director's loan account, and an overdrawn balance left unpaid nine months after the year end attracts the section 455 charge.

Which tax year do the figures on this site use?

Rates and thresholds across these pages are stated for 2026/27 unless a page says otherwise, and each page shows when it was last reviewed. Always check the tax year before applying a figure to an earlier or later period.

Figures quoted across these pages are for the 2026/27 tax year and are general information about how the rules work, not advice on your own position.

About the author

Waqas Sagar ACA FCCA FMAAT, Managing Director. 18+ years' experience advising UK directors on HMRC enquiries, supported by a team with over 100 years' combined experience.

Reviewed by Waqas Sagar ACA FCCA FMAAT on 21 October 2026 · Next review: 21 April 2027

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