Personal Tax Accountant Services

Running a business can provide a secure, comfortable income for you and your family. We can provide personal tax accountant services to find the most efficient way to extract profits from your business.

Jill Walker

Private Client Partner

Contact Jill Meet the team

Who we can help

ENTREPRENEURS
HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS
INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE CLIENTS

How we can help

TAX ADVICE
PRIVATE CLIENT
TAX COMPLIANCE
TAX PLANNING
CHARITABLE GIVING
TAX RESIDENCE & DOMICILE
PROPERTY TAX
SCOTTISH TAXPAYERS
PARTNERSHIPS
TRUST PLANNING & FAMILY INVESTMENT COMPANIES
INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE CLIENT TAX

PERSONAL TAX ACCOUNTANTS THAT PUT MORE IN YOUR POCKET

Speak to our personal tax accountant team

Setting up and running a business can be exciting and will almost certainly entail a great deal of hard work and long hours, so it’s only right that you should be able to reward yourself appropriately. Our personal tax accountants can provide the tax advice you need to carefully plan how to avoid paying unnecessary amounts of tax.

We give tax advice to business owners on personal tax using our experience and knowledge to help create the most efficient tax strategy for your individual situation. The most commonly used methods to extract profit are taking a salary, taking a dividend and paying into a pension. We’ll examine them here.

TAKING A SALARY

Assuming your business vehicle is a limited company, you can pay yourself a salary. A salary is regarded as an allowable business expense, so it will reduce the amount of Corporation Tax your business is liable for.

Additionally, if you decide to take a salary above the Lower Earnings Limit (£6,396 for the 2022/23 tax year) then it will count towards your state pension contributions. It might be tempting to pay yourself a significant amount, but there are good reasons for being restrained. If your salary is below the National Insurance (NI) Primary threshold, you won’t need to pay employee’s NI contributions and if it’s below the NI Secondary threshold, your company won’t have to pay employer’s NICs.

A point to think about regarding NI contributions is that the threshold is monthly rather than annual, so if your income for one month exceeds the threshold, you’ll pay NICs even if your income is below the threshold for all the other months.

Another point to be aware of, is that if you’re a director rather than an employee, then the threshold is annual rather than monthly and is calculated at the weekly amount x 52.

Keeping your salary below the Personal Allowance (£12,750 for the 2022/23 tax year) will also mean you don’t pay any income tax (provided you don’t have other income that could take you over the limit).

This may seem a poor return for all your hard work, but bear in mind that a higher salary will reduce your company’s profits, which in turn reduces the value of dividends you can pay to yourself as a shareholder. It’s all about balance, and we can do the sums for you to arrive at the most tax-optimal figure.

Get in touch with personal tax accountants today

AAB's private client tax team deliver clear advice in understandable terms so we can appreciate how effective planning can lead to benefits for the whole family. They have taken away the worry and doubt for us.
Alex Wiseman
I contemplated transferring my business to a limited company and I knew I could rely on AAB to make the process as straightforward as possible whilst providing the accounts and tax advice to enable me to make the right decision.
Colin Brown
The firm's IHT, Trusts and Estates team provided me with highly innovative solutions which produced the exact result that I requested. I asked many, many questions along the way – all of which were ably answered by the team.
James Thom
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending AAB to anyone else who, like us, may be struggling to get the expert advice required, especially when it involves coming back to the UK and managing tax aspects on overseas income and assets.
John Bannerman

PAYING YOURSELF WITH DIVIDENDS

A dividend is a share of the company’s profits, and as the company owner and a shareholder, you can pay yourself a dividend. The benefit here is that there’s less tax to pay on dividends than on income. It’s usual to take a mix of salary and dividends to ensure you pay the least possible tax.

You have an annual dividend allowance of £2,000 which is tax free, then dividends are taxed at 7.5% for basic rate earners and 32.5% for higher rate earners. At the additional rate for those earning over £150,000, the dividend tax rate is 38.1%. Dividends are exempt from NIC.

You can only pay yourself a dividend if there’s sufficient profit in the company to cover it. Remember profit is what remains after all the business expenses have been paid, including Corporation Tax and VAT. Should you have sufficient profit but decide not to pay dividends one year, then the profit accumulates so can potentially pay larger dividends in the future.

Get personal tax accountant services

CONTRIBUTING TO YOUR PENSION

Paying into a personal pension is another popular way to extract profits from your company. As a director your limited company can make pension contributions for you as an employee; it counts as a business expense so it’s deductible against Corporation Tax. So you benefit by putting money aside for the future and reduce the company’s tax bill.

You can also, in theory, pay into your pension as an individual. However, that has no impact on your company’s profits and therefore won’t reduce Corporation Tax, so it’s more tax-efficient for your company make the payments.

You’ll get tax relief on your pension contributions, up to your annual allowance, which is 100% of your earnings, or £40,000– whichever is lower. Above that allowance the contributions will be subject to income tax, but at a lower rate than you’d pay on your salary.

Although you can keep putting money into your pension over the years, there’s a limit on how much you can take out, either in lump sums or a regular income, before you start paying tax on it. This is your lifetime allowance, which is currently £1,073,000.

Speak to us about pensions

Sign up for the latest industry insights

Blog18th Dec 2025
2025 Business Unit Year in Review
Before everyone’s out of office goes on and before we officially wrap up for the Christmas holidays, we wanted to take this time to reflect on the year we’ve had. 2025 has been transformative for AAB, from expanding into new…
By Mark Lappin
View more
Blog8th Dec 2025
The 31 January Filing Deadline – Self Assessment
As the festive season approaches and the year draws to a close, many individuals in self-assessment will soon be winding down for the holidays content that their 2024/25 tax returns are submitted. Others, however, may be tempted to push the…
By Adrian Gill
View more
Blog30th Oct 2025
Will You Make A Lump Sum Tax Payment On the 31st Of January?
If you file your Self-Assessment tax return with HMRC by 30 December, you may be able to have any tax you owe for 2024/25 collected via a restriction in your tax code for the tax year commencing on 6 April 2026.…
By Bev Holroyd
View more
Blog24th Sep 2025
Self-Assessment Returns: Everything You Need To Know
With the 5th October deadline for registering for Self-Assessment fast approaching, are you prepared to file on time? If this deadline is missed, HMRC have the right to charge you a penalty. This penalty is known as a ‘Failure to…
By Sarah Sargent
View more