Do I need a remuneration strategy?

Once your business is financially stable, you’ll no doubt have thought about how to take income from the company, particularly how to split income between salary and dividends.

So, what are the main considerations when creating a remuneration strategy?:

• Your first choice is generally to ask ‘How much should I take as a salary?’. Presuming that you don’t have a contract of employment with your company (most owner-managers don’t) then the National Minimum Wage legislation doesn’t apply.
• To build up credits (contribution years) for the state pension, your salary has to be paid at a rate that’s equivalent to at least the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) of £520/month. Generally, therefore, a salary of at least that amount should be taken.
• Individuals currently pay National Insurance (NI) contributions at a rate of 12% on salary between £797 and £4,189, and at 2% on salary in excess of that level. However, it’s recently been announced that the NI rates will be rising from April 2022 to provide funding for the Government’s new Health & Social Care Levy.
• From April 2022, NI rates will increase as follows: for employees with annual earnings between £9,568 and £50,270 the National Insurance rate increases from 12% to 13.25%, an increase of 10.4% above current levels. On earnings over £50,270 the rate is over half as much again, changing from 2% to 3.25%. These increased NI deductions will need to be factored into your strategy.
• The company will have to pay Class 1a and 1b employer NI contributions at a rate of 13.8% for all salary above £737 per month. But these contributions may be partly or fully covered in some circumstances by the NI employment allowance.
• There’s a ‘sweet spot’ between £520 and £737/£797 where no NI is payable by either party, which can be a big factor in the amount of salary you pay out. This sweet spot is also below your income tax threshold as an individual – you’re actually considered to be a contributor to earn state pension benefits and the salary is deductible against the company’s profits for corporation tax purposes.
• Above this sweet-spot level, it’s sensible to consider whether or not to take dividends. Bear in mind that dividends can only be paid out of after-tax company profit, so your business does need to have delivered this profit before you can extract any cash as a dividend payment.
• The first £2,000 of dividends are tax-free for the recipient, but above that the rate depends on which tax band the dividends fall into. If you have any unused personal allowances then dividends that fill that gap are tax-free.
• These rates will increase by 1.25 percentage points from April 2022. Dividends in the basic-rate band (generally total income between £12,570 and £37,700) are taxed at 7.5%. Dividends in the higher-rate band are taxed at 32.5% and anything above that is taxed at 38.1%.
• Other ways in which funds can be extracted from the company include paying off amounts due on any director’s loan account, making a loan to you as a director (which can have other consequences), making contributions to your director’s pension fund and providing benefits in kind.
• As with all of these things, the driver behind your remuneration strategy needs to be the needs of the business, not the short-term, positive tax implications for you personally. There will always be specific considerations to factor in for each scenario and each individual – so it’s good practice to talk to your accountant in advance of extracting any funds from the business.