Minimum Salary

[Novice Contractor]

To be clear, the company has to pay corporation tax first. You then get the first £35K per shareholder tax free and 10% on the balance. There is no further tax to pay. Easiest to illustrate by way of example:-

Let's say you earn £100K after expenses (inc salary say £5K) but before taxes over each of the next 5 years. You therefore earn £500K over 5 years.

The company pays 19% corporation tax on this leaving £405K in the company coffers before dividends. You draw out £30K pa by way of dividend as this is tax free. This leaves the company with £255K to distribute.

You pay this equally to yourself and your wife (assuming you are male and married) by way of capital distribution. The first £70K is tax-free so you pay £185K @ 10% = £18,500.

Everyone's a winner.

Now I am really confused, my accountant has not told me any of this. I was not aware that IR35 insurance existed. Regarding "real business or tax evader". I was made redundant (for the fourth time) from a senior and well paid management position. I was fed up with the crap that line management brings and wanted simply to be able to use my expertise to earn a living . Contracting seemed like a good way of doing this. In my field assignments are usually found through agencies (Hays. Michael Page etc) why? because most of my contracting roles have been public sector and many large public sector organisations only hire contractors from agencies who are on framework agreements. Many assignments are let by the agency on the proviso that the contractor is Ltd. Therefore, if I want to work, I have to be Ltd. So do I need IR35 insurance? is it expensive? Can anyone recommend a pro-active accountant who will advise me properly?