Dividend vouchers and Payslips

[Ashwin2007]

I work through my own limited company. I pay myself Salary and dividends. I make the payments online from my Business account to Personal account. My accounts including payroll processing are managed by an Accountant. I send Excel sheet of accounts each month to my accountant giving salary and dividends (if any) paid during the month.

Questions:

(1) Should dividend voucher be printed and kept on file each time dividend is paid?
(2) Should Payslip be printed and kept on file each time salary is paid?

[BrilloPad]

I work through my own limited company. I pay myself Salary and dividends. I make the payments online from my Business account to Personal account. My accounts including payroll processing are managed by an Accountant. I send Excel sheet of accounts each month to my accountant giving salary and dividends (if any) paid during the month.

Questions:

(1) Should dividend voucher be printed and kept on file each time dividend is paid?
(2) Should Payslip be printed and kept on file each time dividend is paid?

No need for a payslip : but you need a voucher. You can do it or get your accountant to do it for you.

[Ashwin2007]

Thanks very much BrilloPad. I will request my accountant to prepare the dividend vouchers.

Should I also print and keep the Company Board's resolution for the declaration of the dividend? Currently I am the sole Director with 100% shareholding.

[BrilloPad]

Thanks very much BrilloPad. I will request my accountant to prepare the dividend vouchers.

Should I also print and keep the Company Board's resolution for the declaration of the dividend? Currently I am the sole Director with 100% shareholding.

It makes no difference : you still need a company meeting. I believe Paris is a good place to hold this : though of course the travel expenses are tax deductable!

[Ashwin2007]

Thanks BrilloPad.

[Gonzo]

It makes no difference : you still need a company meeting. I believe Paris is a good place to hold this : though of course the travel expenses are tax deductable!

The dividend does need to be minuted. I always used to send that to the accountant, whether they produced a voucher from it or not I never knew because they do my personal tax too.

In the early days I did specifically ask the accountant whether I could spend some money holding official meetings and the answer was no because I was the only director and the only shareholder.

EDIT: I suppose that the usual rule applies - the Directors can spend company money on anything they see fit BUT if the books are inspected by HMRC can they convince them that this is not a personal expense?

[AlanR]

Payslips

According to the HMRC web site, issuing of pay slips IS a legal requirement:

Issuing pay statements
By law, every pay day you must give your employee a written record of pay and deductions, including:
'gross pay' - before the deduction of tax or National Insurance contributions (NICs) and any other deductions
employee's Class 1 NICs deducted
tax deducted
Depending on the employee's circumstances you may also need to include other payments and deductions on the payslip. The later sections of this guide tell you what these might be but we look at tax and National Insurance first.
At the end of each tax year you must also complete a form P60 End of year certificate providing a summary of the employee's total pay and tax/NICs deductions for year. You must give this to your employee by the 31 May after the end of the tax year.

Further details here

Alan

[EchoSierra]

In the early days I did specifically ask the accountant whether I could spend some money holding official meetings and the answer was no because I was the only director and the only shareholder.

Do you have a secretary as I have meetings with him although I've never claimed any expenses meeting related.

[bledubd]

(1) Should dividend voucher be printed and kept on file each time dividend is paid?

I got a dividend voucher template from my accountant in word format. I just fill in the amounts and dates and print as pdf. i have scanned a copy of my signature which I also include before I print as pdf

(2) Should Payslip be printed and kept on file each time salary is paid?

you don't have to print the payslip each time you get paid. I get a schedule of salary payments at the start of the financial year which I use. If i need to apply for anything that requires proof of salary i just have the accountant write a letter on their letterhead in addition to the schedule.

I keep all the documents in electronic format

[prozak]

I just keep everything in electronic format.

pdf for payslips - which I do myself using 12Pay.
word for all meetings and eventual divi voucher.

If hector comes calling I'll just print out these when required... in this day and age it's not reasonable to keep paper for everything. IMHO.