I guess that if I make a £50k net profit this year and decide to leave in the company for the next 5 years, I would still be subject to dividend tax when I take it out so would lose £11k of it and end up with £39k.
Corporation tax will not be affected by when you take the dividends.
I think that generally the optimum strategy is to pay sufficient dividends to take your total personal tax bill for the year up to the point that higher rate tax kicks in. Leave the rest of the money in the company to be taken out in a later year. If you wait for a year when you can take it out without paying higher rate tax then there will be no more tax to pay. Of course tax rules can change though. If you are not 100% sure you are immune from IR35, or want to keep things simple, or don't trust Gordon Brown not to do something nasty like introducing NI on dividends, then consider bunging the rest as a company contribution into a pension scheme. (This will reduce your IR35 bill if your judgement that you were outside turns out to have been over-optimistic.)
Savings accounts for companies offer less choice and worse rates than ones for individuals, but the difference isn't so great that it should affect when you pay dividends. I've addressed this issue by having company money in a high yield bond fund for a few years. Obviously this is riskier than a savings account, but four years later my capital is slightly up and I've had income well above 5% a year during the whole period. I think the bond fund was bought via discount brokers Canvendish Direct to avoid front-end charges.
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