Can Limited Company Secretary contract themself

[BA to the Stars]

Indeed a shareholder does not have to be employed by the company. Have a look at some of the first timer stuff in the CUK navigation bar - very useful & reader friendly. Good luck

[ASB]

If we held equal shares do we have to take equal dividends?

No. Any shareholder can waive the right to some or all of their dividends.

Be warned though, this might not be a particularly wise thing to do from a view of the settlements legislation. There is also a school of thought which says that if the company was unable to pay the dividend on all the sdhares without a waiver it is getting on very very thin ice.

e.g. distributable reserves 20k. Two shareholder with 1 share each, 1 waives 10k divi is OK - since that would be fundable to all shareholders. Anything over would not be fundable to all shareholders.

[VectraMan]

No. Any shareholder can waive the right to some or all of their dividends.

I didn't know that. Can that person get the dividend at a later date (the next year for example). And if they don't, does that extra money count towards future profit/dividends?

[ASB]

I didn't know that. Can that person get the dividend at a later date (the next year for example). And if they don't, does that extra money count towards future profit/dividends?

If you are thinkg of doing it you might want to read this:-

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tsemmanual/TSEM4225.htm

You can find wording here:-

http://www.rossmartin.co.uk/Archive/...v%20waiver.htm

From the accounting point of view it simply reduces the total dividend paid out. It is not income to the company.

[Mustang]

I was thinking if we both contract under the one company name then it would better meet IR35 tests.

It depends - AFAIK it would only help if you were in the same business. If, for example, you are in IT and she wanted to be a freelance florist it might not help. In addition, in the example above, it might complicate registration at Co House since you would be in 2 different company classifications.

Remember - I am not a lawyer/accountant!

HTH