Wife as a secretary or assistant or company director

[SueEllen]

Yes - if the company pays into the pension plan of the officer, then that is a business expense that is deducted before corporation tax is calculated.

Actually HMRC will count that as tax avoidance.

You can only pay into pension plans of people that are on the company pay roll.

[Fred Bloggs]

Actually HMRC will count that as tax avoidance.

You can only pay into pension plans of people that are on the company pay roll.

MyCo doesn't run a pay roll. But I do pay divis. And I pay into my SIPP from MyCo.

[Jog On]

MyCo doesn't run a pay roll. But I do pay divis. And I pay into my SIPP from MyCo.

So do I, what I was getting at was if it's possibvle to pay into my wife's SIPP as well if she's a company officer. Which I thought was a bit of a long shot (but worth asking), however if I got her doing some work and paid her a salary that might change.

So my understanding is:

company officer (no salary) - no pension contributions
salaried employee - yes to pension contributions (up to 40k/year?)

She already has a part time job with a salary so it would be complicated...

[Fred Bloggs]

So do I, what I was getting at was if it's possibvle to pay into my wife's SIPP as well if she's a company officer. Which I thought was a bit of a long shot (but worth asking), however if I got her doing some work and paid her a salary that might change.

She already has a part time job with a salary so it would be complicated and expensive...

I understand that if your wife is simply Co Sec then a company SIPP contribution would be frowned upon by HMRC. But it is certainly worth investigating further I would have thought.

[Jog On]

I understand that if your wife is simply Co Sec then a company SIPP contribution would be frowned upon by HMRC. But it is certainly worth investigating further I would have thought.

I'll ask my accountant - because another £40k/year into the family retirement pot offset against CT without having to pay a salary would be rather good - probably too good to be true but if David Cameron can get away with being in the Panama papers whils being an acting prime minister I suppose anything is possible...

[northernladuk]

I'll ask my accountant - because another £40k/year into the family retirement pot offset against CT without having to pay a salary would be rather good - probably too good to be true but if David Cameron can get away with being in the Panama papers whils being an acting prime minister I suppose anything is possible...

I thought there was some issue around HMRC not looking very favourably on paying a spouse 8k a year and then giving them 40k pension payments? I would have thought that would have been very difficult to justify to them for fairly obvious reasons.

[Jog On]

I thought there was some issue around HMRC not looking very favourably on paying a spouse 8k a year and then giving them 40k pension payments? I would have thought that would have been very difficult to justify to them for fairly obvious reasons.

I'm only interested in paying the spouse 40k pension paymens a year without having to pay the 8k salary. My justification would be that I take my lead from our esteemed politicians who lead with their actions.

The legality is what I'm concerned with.

[northernladuk]

I'm only interested in paying the spouse 40k pension paymens a year without having to pay the 8k salary. My justification would be that I take my lead from our esteemed politicians who lead with their actions.

The legality is what I'm concerned with.

So which is it. What politicians do or what is legal?

[Jog On]

So which is it. What politicians do or what is legal?

What is legal with plenty of justification!

[missinggreenfields]

Actually HMRC will count that as tax avoidance.

You can only pay into pension plans of people that are on the company pay roll.

So you pay them via payroll then. If the officer is being paid, then you pay them.