From April

[LondonManc]

It can be done but it may not be as efficient depending on what you want to do. Someone asked this the other week and it appears it will still be inefficient after April but I see more and more articles popping up saying it's worth thinking about now. Gotta be careful as the ones that say yes tend to be related to the housing market. Nice article here.

Contractors’ Questions: Can I buy property via my limited company? :: Contractor UK

It's likely you would be better starting a new company and registering it as a SPV with the right SIC code as it may affect your ability to get finance. Decent article on that here.

Limited company buy to let mortgages

Interesting. Given it's a long term investment, looks like I'm better taking a short term, one off hit to release the capital and not have to pay 20% in corp tax every year (which could go up or down). Similarly the property is all mine rather than Ltd Co's, which means that it's easier to bequeath to family, etc. I'd rather take the initial tax hit but I could probably do with looking into the letting market as a whole in more detail as well.

[fool]

Interesting. Given it's a long term investment, looks like I'm better taking a short term, one off hit to release the capital and not have to pay 20% in corp tax every year (which could go up or down). Similarly the property is all mine rather than Ltd Co's, which means that it's easier to bequeath to family, etc. I'd rather take the initial tax hit but I could probably do with looking into the letting market as a whole in more detail as well.

Don't really get you.

You can be paying ~20% on the profits via corporation tax or you can be paying it on your income tax. I suspect, you'd be happier paying the former, as this won't mess with what you take out of the company to live on.

I'm actually leaning towards buying property in an Ltd but I'd rather fully understand the rules before I pull the trigger. Please do feel free to help us get there.

[siouxchief]

Whereas, if you don't personally need the funds and are looking to invest, the majority of the time your company could do this and also make the same returns. Then this would remain in the company to distribute at a later date.

Can you expand on this please Louisa as sounds interesting but not sure what you are specifically suggesting?

Thanks

[Louisa@InTouch]

You could look at playing it safe and investing in fixed bonds - with interest as the return on this. Or investing in shares but this will be more risky on the returns.

As long as all of the investments are in the company name.

What you need to look at, is the rate of return more than what you would get personally, after paying taxes on the income.

For example, are you going to get a higher rate of return personally by leaving it in your business;

1 - not paying 32.5% personally (16/17 HR) on the dividend income (assuming HR tax payer in 16/17)
2 - paying 20% corporation tax instead
3 - potentially only 10% CGT rate on closure of your company (assuming no changes to the current rules), plus you'll have your capital gains annual exemption too of £11,100.