Accountants for property company directors taking money out
You own a property company, profit has built up inside it, and you want it out without paying more tax than you need to. The order you draw in matters more than the total: a director's loan balance comes back to you with no personal tax, dividends are taxed at the 2026/27 rates on top of corporation tax already paid, and salary carries employer National Insurance the company must fund. A specialist looks first at what your director's loan account really stands at, whether the company keeps the small profits rate, and how much profit you actually need to draw. You finish with an extraction order for the tax year and the paperwork prepared to match.
What lands on your desk
What you are dealing with
Dividends against salary at the 2026/27 rates
From 6 April 2026 the dividend rates are 10.75% basic, 35.75% higher and 39.35% additional, after an allowance of only £500. Basic and higher each rose by two percentage points from the 8.75% and 33.75% of 2025/26, so a mix settled two years ago is no longer the same answer. Salary is deductible against corporation tax, but the company pays employer National Insurance at 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, and a sole-director company cannot claim the Employment Allowance. The extraction calculator compares the routes.
The director's loan balance you can repay without tax
If you transferred properties into the company, it almost certainly owes you money, and repaying that credit balance costs no personal tax. It is usually the first route. The trap is exhaustion: drawing monthly against a balance created at incorporation can run a large credit down within four or five years, and the year it empties is the year you move to higher-rate dividends.
When the loan runs the other way
Take out more than the company owes you and the account goes overdrawn, making you a participator with a loan from a close company. Where it is still outstanding nine months and one day after the year end, the company pays a section 455 charge under CTA 2010: 35.75% for loans made on or after 6 April 2026, 33.75% for earlier loans, because the rate follows the dividend upper rate at ITA 2007 s.8(2). It is refunded once you repay, but slowly.
What the company pays before you take anything
Profit is taxed inside the company first: 19% up to £50,000, 25% above £250,000, and marginal relief in between at an effective 26.5%, with the thresholds divided between associated companies. A close investment-holding company loses the small profits rate and pays 25% throughout. Most buy-to-let companies are not caught, because letting land commercially to unconnected tenants is a permitted purpose under CTA 2010 s.18N, but letting to a connected person, or to their spouse or a relative, falls outside it. Check the company figure first.
What a specialist reviews
What a specialist reviews
A review of the extraction order for this tax year
A specialist reviews the company's profit, your other personal income, the director's loan account, the share classes and whether an employer pension contribution is available, then sets out the order to draw in and what each step costs. The output is a sequence with figures attached rather than one number, because the right mix depends on your income outside the company.
The director's loan account rebuilt from the records
Where the loan account has drifted, a specialist reconstructs it from the incorporation paperwork, the bank statements and the expenses you paid personally, and tells you what the balance really is. That figure decides how much can come out with no personal tax, whether a section 455 exposure is building, and the year the credit balance runs out.
Payroll, dividend paperwork and the filings that follow
Your accountant prepares the payroll for any salary drawn, the board minutes and dividend vouchers for each distribution, the section 455 entries on the corporation tax return, and the dividend pages of your self assessment. Accounts and personal return come from the same figures. The sequencing guide shows how this runs across several years.
What the enquiry needs from you
Describe the company and what you want to take out, and the three figures that matter come first: the director's loan credit balance, the profit already taxed at 19% to 25%, and your income outside the company. Those set whether the next pound leaves as a loan repayment, a dividend or an employer pension contribution.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
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