N.I. payments for limited comapny

[mcowlishaw]

Paying N.I. contributions for my ltd co involves looking up tables and selecting my weekly/monthly salaries. I am contracting by myself and so i am both a director and employee.
I find this process is wide open to abuse, as surely i can just make my salary very low and avoid paying ANY N.I. at all!
Is it legal to not pay any N.I. payments, and, would the taxman, (IR) be asking questions?
If i do not pay any NI, then would this affect my state pension etc?

[jacksjpt]

Your question suggests you ay not be aware of many pitfalls in your position. The simple answer is that it is tax effective to pay yourself the approx 5k/year salary that would mean you don't have to pay any NI, and then pay the rest of the the co profit as a dividend. However, as you state you are contracting, I strongly urge you to look up information on IR35 - places to search would be here (taxationweb.co.uk), hmrc.co.uk, pcg.org.uk, shout99.com/contractors and, of course, google.