Registering for PAYE with HMRC

You need to register if the salary is above LEL(currently 5304/year)

As a director of a limited company I'm intending paying a salary below the tax and NI thresholds, and have no other employees. Am I correct in thinking that I do not have to set up a PAYE scheme with HMRC? Do I need to inform them that this is my intention?

[oversteer]

Having just done it it's pretty easy, although as always if you aren't sure you really must ask your accountant.

I called them and they sent out a pack which let me register online via my HMRC/Government Gateway account.

From then I installed the HMRC PAYE Tools which gives you a Flash-esque program with a nice interface. You enter details of the new employee (you) and it submits details to HMRC; then each month you put in the gross pay and it calculates the net and PAYE/NI. If you have no tax to pay you notify them online on their website.

If you do it right you won't have tax to pay - or may end up with an initial tax refund if you have already been paid via PAYE elsewhere this year.

[Taxless]

HM Revenue & Customs: Register as an employer

[Clare@InTouch]

You need to register if you're paying above the NI Lower Earnings Limit, go careful as this is not the same as your tax code level.

You may want to register and pay a low salary anyway so that you get state pension credit, you don't necessarily need to pay tax or NI in order to qualify.

[northernladuk]

I don't know the answer but could I just play devils advocate and ask why don't you get an accountant, possibly just for the first steps until all this is covered and then when you have got to grips then go alone?

Might seem a tad expensive but a good guy should save you his first years costs in advice and the like. Even if it means you not getting in to trouble it would be worth it.

[cloud365]

As a director of a limited company I'm intending paying a salary below the tax and NI thresholds, and have no other employees. Am I correct in thinking that I do not have to set up a PAYE scheme with HMRC? Do I need to inform them that this is my intention?