Limited company tax
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.
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What the company pays on its profit, when it is due and how the rate is worked out.
Small profits rate, main rate and marginal relief.
Corporation taxCompany tax and personal tax together.
Corporation taxPayment at nine months and a day, return at twelve.
Corporation taxReference numbers, methods and timing.
Corporation taxRun your profit through the current rates.
2026/27
Salary, dividends and the split between them, which is the decision that moves most owner-managed tax bills.
How the two are taxed and why the mix matters.
Paying yourselfCompare take-home across both routes.
Paying yourselfSet a salary, then model the dividends on top.
Paying yourselfAllowance, ordinary, upper and additional rates.
Paying yourselfGetting distributions legal and documented.
Paying yourselfRTI, thresholds and the employment allowance.
2026/27
Money taken out that is neither salary nor a dividend, and the section 455 charge that follows.
2026/27
What the company can deduct, and what becomes a taxable benefit when it reaches you.
The wholly and exclusively test in practice.
Expenses and benefitsCheck a cost before you claim it.
Expenses and benefitsBenefit in kind on a company vehicle.
Expenses and benefitsPensions, timing and reliefs reviewed together.
2026/27
The two regimes that catch companies out as they grow past the registration and hiring thresholds.
The threshold, the schemes and the timing.
VAT and payrollDigital records and compatible software.
VAT and payrollAdd or strip VAT at the standard and reduced rates.
VAT and payrollPAYE registration, RTI and auto enrolment.
VAT and payrollSecondary threshold, the 15% rate and the employment allowance.
VAT and payrollRun by us, filed on time every month.
2026/27
The annual cycle, and what to do when it has already slipped.
Statutory accounts prepared and filed.
Filing and deadlinesWhat goes in the return and its attachments.
Filing and deadlinesYour dates from your year end.
Filing and deadlinesBehind on filings? Start here.
Filing and deadlinesThe penalty table and appeal grounds.
Questions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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