newp

by **spunko2010** on Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:17 pm

I am the director of a UK tech company, last year our profits were around £500k. My accountant has been trying to get us to use some sort of 'legal' loophole where I can write off Corporation Tax and top-rate income tax (I take dividends) but won't divulge further details on the system without seeing his "tax avoidance" guy - probably because they want 15% fee of the profits for trying this, which is not guaranteed to work and will probably result in an investigation by HMRC, which they also handle as part of that fee.

Does anyone have any inkling as to what this scheme may be? I suspect it's the R&D grant scheme, but not sure. I would like to do my own research and "shop around", etc.

by **spunko2010** on Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:18 pm

No idea why the title is "newp", by the way. :ugeek:

by **tax_schmax** on Tue Nov 08, 2011 3:54 pm

There are a number of packaged schemes available. It could literally be anything. See the "tax avoidance" guy and see how you feel. In my experience, most get the wobbles and don't do anything fancy. The most common type of scheme in this interesting area of tax planning is private individuals avoiding Stamp Duty Land Tax on purchasing a private residence. I know of at least 10 people who have explored this and only one that has gone through with the planning.

You can do a fair amount with some pretty vanilla planning such as pensions for you and your staff and taking dividends rather than salary. These aggressive schemes do work, if you're brave enough.