Draw salary from my limited company when out of contract

[northernladuk]

Fire them - they are clueless.

This!

Ring InTouch and tell Louisa that I sent you their way (mention my forum name is fine )

You run out of Lasagne already?

Seriously, if they are getting this so completely wrong, then you need to worry about what else they are getting wrong.

Totally this!!! If he doesn't understand your business I would be very worried that none of his advice is inkeeping with your business. You can't drop this guy fast enough. Make sure you do it carefully though. I have a feeling the handover is not going to go smoothly.........

[jmo21]

No confussion regarding this. I've continued paying dividends, and also they've confirmed that is absolutely fine. The issue seems to be with salary and expenses. They think if I'm not on a contract I'm not "working" so they literally said: "You need to see yourself as the employee of the company. No company would pay a salary to you if you are not doing any work for them, same rule applies to your Ltd company as well."

I'm a bit pissed off. Thinking what to do next.

*tea everywhere*

Sorry mate, but that is hilarious!

as everyone else has commented, sack them.

How much do you pay for this "service"?

[Andrew@Wisteria]

Ring InTouch and tell Louisa that I sent you their way (mention my forum name is fine )

You must have free accountancy fees for life by now!

Your accountant is clueless. You don't even need profits to pay a salary, you can even create or increase a loss.

[Andrew@Wisteria]

They said they are following HMRC guidance here

What's actually important is what the law says not HMRC guidance.

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

You whole set of family and friends must have free accountancy fees for life by now!

[Danglekt]

I wager a lot of people here are not working whilst being paid.

There are times when reading this forum can feel very much like work I should be able to bill someone for

[MrMarkyMark]

I suggest you supply your accountants a copy of this, they surely need it:-

[psychocandy]

My accountant stopped my payroll the moment I was more than 1 month out of contract. So not really sure if there is a legal requirement to do this.
Also I couldn't claim expenses anymore other than travel to do interviews.

It was not a leave, nothing planned, just out of contract looking for another one.

I'm not sure if this is right.

Not right. You can do what you want as long as there is money in the company. Continue to pay yourself if you do wish.

Can't claim expenses? Load of crap. Of course you can, assuming they are genuine of course. Of course you cant claim for a trip to the seaside for the day because you're not in contract....

[psychocandy]

It is a Ltd Company as usual, I'm the only director, 100% shares, I have an accountant and they run the payroll. I've been paying myself £883.33 every month until I finished the contract and then they told me to stop paying myself salary and claiming expenses, they stopped the payroll also on their side.

I have to say they reduced their monthly charge, which is nice but...

Their words:

"We have to stop your payroll until the company don't start trading again. Please note you can't claim any expenses until the company is not active again. Travel for interviews is allowed when you are looking for the contract but other expenses can't be claimed."

But was that really how it was worded?

Is this a well known accountant?

[psychocandy]

But the company is active, just with no income. It couldn't be the OP has given the accountant misleading information? But still, you should know enough about what you do to challenge this.

I'd get rid of this setup as soon as possible.

Either that or pass his details to PC. Sounds like they will get on well.

Accountant could be trying to tell him to stop paying salary so that he can claim JSA. This would be good advice ;-)