Spouse should have been a shareholder, can Tax be claimed back from previous tax peri

[Dicko1982]

Hi,

I have been working under a Ltd Co for 5 years, my initial accountant gave me limited advice on how I can benefit from a spouse shareholder and the first 4.5 years I didn't have her as a holder... I changed my accountant and the first advice I got was to add her as she has no other employment and spends directly from our joint bank account, now I am seeing real benefits from this and if I was made aware earlier I would have saved a hefty sum of tax... My question is "Can I enquirer about backdating my spouse as a shareholder? Or is it too late? Circumstances are the same but I hadn't been advised to have her set up as a shareholder, can I claim tax back from previous years?

[Lance]

Not without committing a criminal act of fraud.

If you want to then you need to rewrite 5 years worth of paperwork. Forge bank statements. And come up with a reasonable explanation of how you're accidentally overpaid tax for 5 years without telling them what you're doing.
And pay 5 years of underpaid tax for Mrs. Dicko.

[northernladuk]

There is a lesson in doing a bit of your own research and not sitting there with your finger up you bum not bothering to understand what you do. It's in the newbie guides and in many guides on accounting sites.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Nope, can't be done legally and even doing it fraudulently would be quite an undertaking and very prone to investigation.

So no. Get her setup properly as a shareholder and take advantage of the setup going forward and suck it up.

[northernladuk]

I wonder what else you are missing.....

[Chart Accountancy]

Hi,

I have been working under a Ltd Co for 5 years, my initial accountant gave me limited advice on how I can benefit from a spouse shareholder and the first 4.5 years I didn't have her as a holder... I changed my accountant and the first advice I got was to add her as she has no other employment and spends directly from our joint bank account, now I am seeing real benefits from this and if I was made aware earlier I would have saved a hefty sum of tax... My question is "Can I enquirer about backdating my spouse as a shareholder? Or is it too late? Circumstances are the same but I hadn't been advised to have her set up as a shareholder, can I claim tax back from previous years?

The new shareholder is notified when you file your confirmation statement so the latest date in the past can be the last made up date of your confirmation station. If this date falls within a previous tax year, you could maximum benefit of declaring dividends for one previous year.

[BrilloPad]

You could sue your initial accountant. Or name and shame them.

[Maslins]

You could sue your initial accountant. Or name and shame them.

Would be harsh IMHO. Could be many situations where recommending a partner be a shareholder wouldn't be a good idea. As is normally the case with internet forums, we rarely know the full facts, and of course there's two sides to every story.

[WTFH]

You could sue your initial accountant. Or name and shame them.

Hi,

I have been working under a Ltd Co for 5 years, my initial accountant gave me limited advice on how I can benefit from a spouse shareholder...

Here's the thing, his first accountant gave him advice, he chose not to heed it at the time, the second accountant has now given him the same advice and a few people are saying that the first accountant did a bad job.