Directors loans

[JayCbee]

Hello I need some general advice. A bit of history. My wife is the sole director of a small horse and rider equipment shop - we have premises. Its a ltd company and I act as the Company Secretary.

We started properly trading in November 2014 however my wife did trade online for a few months before. We are now at our first year end. The business is growing but as you will know the first 12 months are the hardest and as it stands the business receives an investment each month from our personal bank account. We are looking to reduce that as the business grows and we are starting to see that that investment can be reduced and will not be necessary soon.

As all of my wife's time is taken up running the business she has been taking around 100-200 pounds a month out of the business for petrol and other expenses (not all business related). We have however been as I say putting in around 600 a month since November last year.

To keep the costs down I have not yet engaged an Accountant and have submitted the year end return and am currently waiting on my activation code from HMRC to proceed with the Corporation tax rtn. For companies house the definition of our business is Micro Organisation so its not too intensive.

Is the 200 a month she has taken out still classed as a directors loan even when in effect the company owes her money? Or in effect is it a Directors loan that is repaid each month by the investment into the business?

thanks
Jason

[Brian Clarke]

I wonder if not engaging an accountant will save you money...

Anyway, aside from that, you need to do a spreadsheet showing all the amounts paid in from the private account, and the NON-business expenses taken out. Sort it into date order, and see how the balance goes.

If the balance is always a credit (more paid in to that point than taken out), then it's OK. If it's not always a credit balance, then it starts to get complicated.