Managing your business

Most limited company directors pay themselves using a mix of salary and dividends. Salary is paid through payroll and treated as a business cost. Dividends are paid to shareholders.

A sole trader structure is simple to run, but you are personally responsible for business debts. A limited company is a separate legal entity with more admin. Here’s how the difference works in practice.

The right ‘keep vs invest’ split comes down to one question: how confident are you that you won’t need the money soon? Start by ring‑fencing taxes and near‑term obligations and then you can go from there. Here’s how.

Corporation Tax is paid by limited companies on taxable profits. Your bill is influenced by revenue, allowable costs, and a few others things. Here’s how it works in practice.

If you’re VAT‑registered or pay Corporation Tax, the safest habit is to treat tax money as already spent. A simple system is to estimate what you owe, ring‑fence it, and go from there.

Cash flow is about timing: when money comes in versus when it has to go out. A cash‑flow forecast is a simple model of your future bank balance.

A Person with Significant Control (PSC) is someone who ultimately owns or controls a UK company (or LLP), most small companies will have at least one. Here’s how to identify yours.