Not being paid and paying tax

[semisane]

Hi I am director of a company and draw my salary from the company account on a monthly basis, and then pay HMRC tax and employee / employer NI.

It looks likely that there will be insufficient funds moving forwards to always be able to draw my salary, so i am wondering what I should do about paying HMRC for those months that I don't draw salary ?

Hope that makes sense

Thoughts ?

[dave123456]

Don’t pay HMRC? I’m puzzled, if it is paye then it’s surely obvious you just don’t pay tax and ni.

[semisane]

I hope it is that simple.

I forgot to pay one month a few years ago and got snotty letter from HMRC saying i needed to pay and they were charging something like 3% a day interest.

Also don't i need to keep up my NI payments (although I think I already have 35 years in) ?

Apologies for my ignorance on such matters

[egomeister]

You still need to submit PAYE info to HMRC, even if that is to say that you paid yourself nothing that month.

Can't remember the exact process for maintaining NI contributions, but that would done through your personal HMRC login. From memory you can check your historic contributions and pay any shortfall but it may take a while for the "missing" payments to show up on your account

[Mandat]

semisane said:

Hi I am director of a company and draw my salary from the company account on a monthly basis, and then pay HMRC tax and employee / employer NI.

It looks likely that there will be insufficient funds moving forwards to always be able to draw my salary, so i am wondering what I should do about paying HMRC for those months that I don't draw salary ?

Hope that makes sense

Thoughts ?

Have you thought about paying your salary into your director's loan account?

This means that you have still notionally received your salary & paid the correct taxes to HMRC, but you don't actually get the cash in your hands until such later time that the company has sufficient funds that you can withdraw your money from the loan account.

[MaxFromage]

Mandat said:

Have you thought about paying your salary into your director's loan account?

This means that you have still notionally received your salary & paid the correct taxes to HMRC, but you don't actually get the cash in your hands until such later time that the company has sufficient funds that you can withdraw your money from the loan account.

He could, but not something most accountants would recommend. If the cash isn't there, why add HMRC as a burden to pay? The salary can always be declared and paid later.

[MaxFromage]

semisane said:

I hope it is that simple.

I forgot to pay one month a few years ago and got snotty letter from HMRC saying i needed to pay and they were charging something like 3% a day interest.

Also don't i need to keep up my NI payments (although I think I already have 35 years in) ?

Apologies for my ignorance on such matters

Are you using specific software or the HMRC basic tools? Either way you will need to make a NIL submission for the month in question if you hold back on the salary.

[Countdown]

semisane said:

I hope it is that simple.

I forgot to pay one month a few years ago and got snotty letter from HMRC saying i needed to pay and they were charging something like 3% a day interest.

Also don't i need to keep up my NI payments (although I think I already have 35 years in) ?

Apologies for my ignorance on such matters

1 months nil pay won't make any difference to your NI contributions record. You'll get a qualifying year as long as your earnings exceed the Lower earnings Limit for the year.