Dividend Confusion

[ASB]

Thanks everyone. I think there has just been a miscommunication between me and the accountant and I after your advice I now feel I am firmer ground to argue the point.

I certainly do have dividend certificates so I shall put those together and forward them.

For the first 8 months 100% pc of the dividend properly declared, minuted etc were yours. After that is was 66/34 for those subsequently declared.

Knowing the exact timings and amounts would enable a calculation to be done.

I suspect that tcp has hit the nail on the head.

Knowing who produced the vouchers and whether they are in your physical possession could clear a lot up. (Your post suggests it is all done correctly).

Often they seem to be discovered down the back of the sofa a bit after the event. Councidentally with the contemperaneous minutes.

Edit: you never "take" dividends. The company votes them and pays them as it sees fit. It may well be that they are simply journalised to shareholders current accounts but that is the result of the process. Not the process.

[SueEllen]

Thanks everyone. I think there has just been a miscommunication between me and the accountant and I after your advice I now feel I am firmer ground to argue the point.

I certainly do have dividend certificates so I shall put those together and forward them.

If you explained it like your original post I'm not surprised there is a miscommunication.

[nato]

Thanks everyone. I think there has just been a miscommunication between me and the accountant and I after your advice I now feel I am firmer ground to argue the point.

I certainly do have dividend certificates so I shall put those together and forward them.

[DoobDude]

Another example of where having an accountant leads to more work, when all you have is a simple contracting limited company.

Self assessment, the clue is in the wording. Do it yourself.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Is your accountant one of those that treats all interim payments as directors loans and then tidies it all up with one big dividend at the end of the year?

[Lance]

The share split is 66/34 and has been applied as such.

However the accountant has applied it to the total yearly dividend take and not just the dividends taken since my wife was appointed.

send your accountant the dividend certificates that were issued after the company board met.
You do have those don't you? If not then ask your accountant how to do them.

[malvolio]

The share split is 66/34 and has been applied as such.

However the accountant has applied it to the total yearly dividend take and not just the dividends taken since my wife was appointed.

So tell your accountant how much money has been issued to and your wife as dividend income. How it is derived is irrelevant.

[Scruff]

Your Accountant is the person to ask. They should be split according to the dates of the Dividends' declaration, as per the minutes of the Meetings.

[nato]

The share split is 66/34 and has been applied as such.

However the accountant has applied it to the total yearly dividend take and not just the dividends taken since my wife was appointed.

[SueEllen]

Your post doesn't make sense.

What is the shareholding split between you and your wife in percentages?

What is the shareholding split the accountant declared in percentages?

If you cannot explain it to us on a forum (which includes accountants) then there is no way your accountant understands what you have done.

[nato]

I'll get straight to the point.

Started the ltd co last year and ran for 8 months as sole director (business started 2 months after co. opening) taking dividends as necessary.
At Christmas I brought on my wife as a director with a relative share ratio and then split the following dividends as such.
However I have now received both mine and my wife's Self Assessments from the accountant and they have taken the company's total dividends and split as the share ratio above.
This means my wife will be declaring more shares than she has actually had and I will be declaring less.

I appreciate that from a pure tax income this won't make a difference to HMRC but to my simple logic why wouldn't we just declare the dividend payments exactly as they were made as this won't take me or my wife into higher tax brackets?

Hopefully all that makes sense but having asked the accountant a few times about why they have done it this way I can't seem to make sense of it so any help is welcome as this is my first year of operating and I want to make sure the t's and i's are sorted.

Thanks in advance.