Abbreviated accounts - dividends and salary

[penx]

It's the end of my first year as a limited company and I hope to apply for a mortgage soon. A lender has told me they'll need to see my dividends and salary on my accounts that I submit to companies house.

I was planning on filing abbreviated accounts (which the bank seemed to think would be ok), but from what I can see these do not include dividends or director's renumeration.

Will I need to submit full accounts in order for dividends and directors renumeration to appear? Or can I add this in somewhere in the Companies House WebFiling form?

[youngguy]

It's the end of my first year as a limited company and I hope to apply for a mortgage soon. A lender has told me they'll need to see my dividends and salary on my accounts that I submit to companies house.

I was planning on filing abbreviated accounts (which the bank seemed to think would be ok), but from what I can see these do not include dividends or director's renumeration.

Will I need to submit full accounts in order for dividends and directors renumeration to appear? Or can I add this in somewhere in the Companies House WebFiling form?

I think it depends on the lender. In my recent experience, abreviated accounts were not good enough. I actually needed "signed accounts". Interestingly, the lender couldn't really articulate exactly what this meant, they just said "Your Accountant will know". My acocuntant basically did a full printout of accounts, along with a cover letter.

Take away message: Get absolute (written) confirmation of what the lender will need well ahead of time and get them that info. They make the rules and you have to accept it if you want to borrow money from them.

[northernladuk]

You could use the search function as detailed in the FAQ section and find the answer you need in the 100's of threads on this exact topic.

[penx]

You could use the search function as detailed in the FAQ section and find the answer you need in the 100's of threads on this exact topic.

I did a lot of searching online before posting, including this forum. Essentially the question I need answering is "can I add dividend and directors renumeration in my abbreviated accounts using the Companies House WebFiling form?" If I search for just 'dividend abbreviated' on this forum I only get 2 results, neither of which answer this.

If you know of any posts I could read, please let me know.

[penx]

I think it depends on the lender. In my recent experience, abreviated accounts were not good enough. I actually needed "signed accounts". Interestingly, the lender couldn't really articulate exactly what this meant, they just said "Your Accountant will know". My acocuntant basically did a full printout of accounts, along with a cover letter.

Take away message: Get absolute (written) confirmation of what the lender will need well ahead of time and get them that info. They make the rules and you have to accept it if you want to borrow money from them.

They seem ok, just for some reason I guess they assumed directors renumeration and dividends would be included in abbreviated accounts. I've checked again and they're now asking for full accounts, should be ok, will just take me a bit longer..

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

It's the end of my first year as a limited company and I hope to apply for a mortgage soon. A lender has told me they'll need to see my dividends and salary on my accounts that I submit to companies house.

I was planning on filing abbreviated accounts (which the bank seemed to think would be ok), but from what I can see these do not include dividends or director's renumeration.

Will I need to submit full accounts in order for dividends and directors renumeration to appear? Or can I add this in somewhere in the Companies House WebFiling form?

Many lenders do not have a very good understanding of smaller businesses, particularly contractor businesses. Explain that as a small company, you are exempt from submitting full accounts to Companies House and that the abbreviated accounts you are required to submit do not contain that information.

Offer your full signed accounts verified by your accountant and possibly even your tax return. The tax return will provide them with details of your income for the year whilst the accounts will give an idea of earnings saved in the company that are not declared as salary or dividends. This is particularly useful to contractors who cap their income at the higher rate threshold as it gives the lender a clearer picture of their overall earnings not just those they have decided to withdraw in salary and dividends!

[northernladuk]

I did a lot of searching online before posting, including this forum. Essentially the question I need answering is "can I add dividend and directors renumeration in my abbreviated accounts using the Companies House WebFiling form?" If I search for just 'dividend abbreviated' on this forum I only get 2 results, neither of which answer this.

If you know of any posts I could read, please let me know.

There aren't any which is kind of the point. Just do what all the others say and put them on to your accountant. Either that or try ringing a different call handler at the lender and hope you get on to someone that knows what they are doing.

Martin's post kinda nails it.

You could also try a contractor specialist like Freelancer Financials who deal with lenders that specialise in lending against your rate and not your income although I did find the rates a little higher than a normal one. Still an option if you have trapped yourself with low pay/minimal divs for a couple of years.