Wife is company sec - should I pay her?

[THEPUMA]

The other thing to consider is whether you need to pay your wife if she is a shareholder in order for her to be eligible for entrepreneurs' relief. From my reading of the guidance so far, being an office holder (ie co sec) is sufficient but it's possible that the Finance Act, once passed, will require more than that.

For the laymen amongst you, entrepreneurs' relief is the mechanism that will bring the effective rate of CGT down to 10% when you eventually close down your company.

[agam]

I think for some of us however if our sives did not do the work they did we would not be able to do ours. By work I mean shopping, cooking, house work, taking kids to school etc. If I had to spend more of my time doing this I would make less money. Therefore in my opinion we are both putting in the same amount of effort for equal return.

I put this to my accountant and solicitor when the income shifting legislation was about to come into effect before being dropped in the last minute. I was looking at classing my wife as a PA rather than admin staff. To note she also does admin / book keeping work for me.

My thought on it then was I would love to see the tax man in the dock trying to convince a judge that my wife didn't deserve to be paid for what she was doing - god help him if she was present

[Dow Jones]

Nope

By work I mean shopping, cooking, house work, taking kids to school etc.
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Unfortunately this is not classed as 'paid work', anything like client-marketing, book-keeping, contract-checking is and needs to be accounted for. On average this shouldn't take more than 10 h/w hence maybe £ 100 p/w = 450 p/m which is the figure mentioned above. Also, strictly speaking, dividends should be split on that basis. A bit more to pay, but you buy peace of mind.
I agree sentimentally/morally is wrong, especially as in a divorce case your wife will be entitled half of your income, so you might as well split your earnings, but unfortunately they are treated differently in each case.

[lambrini_socialist]

By work I mean shopping, cooking, house work, taking kids to school etc.
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Unfortunately this is not classed as 'paid work'

yet god only knows the value to the economy of all this unpaid childcare. it's so wrong that engaging in "marketing activities" is deemed more valuable to society than raising well-balanced and healthy children.

[agam]

By work I mean shopping, cooking, house work, taking kids to school etc.
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Unfortunately this is not classed as 'paid work',

Can you imagine the news headlines "HMRC say millions of housewives don't deserve paying"

I would love to see them marching in the streets

The fact is though without such support would many of us be able to do what we do (and earn what we earn)?

[FunctionCall]

Can you imagine the news headlines "HMRC say millions of housewives don't deserve paying"

I would love to see them marching in the streets

The fact is though without such support would many of us be able to do what we do (and earn what we earn)?

I doubt they'd argue that wives didn't deserve paying, just that they shouldn't be paid by the company.

If you want to pay her out of your income, I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem...

[AZZIK]

I've started paying the missus (company sec) £453 per month. This attracts no NIC or income tax and also gives her a qualifying pension year.

QB.

Your secretary does how much work a month? 4hrs maybe? So u pay her over £110 an hour?? Amazing....Now if that doesn't attract attention, I don't know what does.

[QwertyBerty]

Your secretary does how much work a month? 4hrs maybe? So u pay her over £110 an hour?? Amazing....Now if that doesn't attract attention, I don't know what does.

LOL, not quite. Still some weeks are busier than others. Just like any other job eh?

[dmini]

My accountant advised £200/month was a good salary for my other half to do paperwork. That was based on some kind of HMRC advice - as far as I can remember