jon

It sounds like you need to complete a Self Assessment form. You will be able to enter how much you have earned, and also list your expenses as you can offset these against tax (assuming the company you are working for are not going to be reimbursing you for these). Once submitted, HMRC will be able to see how much you have earned and how much tax you have paid and see that you have overpaid and should issue you with a refund. This can take a few months as I understand it. Also, if you are being paid PAYE (what I mean by that, is you get a payslip showing what you have earned, what deductions have been made and what your tax code is) then it is worth checking your tax code. It sounds like you are on what is known as "emergency tax". Which basically means HMRC don't have enough enough information to know what your earnings look like, so they are just taxing you on the whole lot with the intention of figuring it out later, once they have received your self assessment. Hope that helps... Jon

Hi Ben, I am happy to be corrected on this, but let me give you an example of my understanding of this. Because it sounds to me as though you may be mixing up the effect of dividends on company profit. Let's say your company has sales of £100,000. You then have £7,500 of expenses. You then spend £12,500 paying yourself a salary. This would leave you with a profit of £80,000. At a Corporation Tax rate of 20% (for simplicity!) your tax would be £16,000. This leaves £64,000 available to be paid as dividends to the shareholder(s). You may have withdrawn all 64k as a dividend. Or you may have withdrawn 40k as a dividend and left 24k in the company. It makes no difference. Profit has already been calculated and some or all of those profits will have been to the shareholder(s) as dividends. The relevance of dividends becomes important on the self assessment as it is then part of your income. Again, happy to be told I'm wrong or have misunderstood, but that is my understanding here. Jon

Hi there, I have a limited company and I recently acquired a US client. For at least the next 12 months I would expect them to be my biggest client. In order to avoid the US withholding tax, I had to complete a W8 form and also speak to the IRS to get an EIN (Employer Identification Number). This I did, all forms completed and all good. However, I have had a letter from the IRS asking me to complete a 1065 form. From what I can tell, this is not specifically tax related, but it basically an annual return reporting sales, expenses and dividends etc through the company. A lot like a corporation tax return, but only for information purposes as my company will not be taxed in the US. The part I am unclear on, because the wording around the subject is unclear, is whether the IRS will attempt to tax me on the dividends taken from the company. It seems ridiculous that would, as I will be paying dividend tax on them here in the UK. But as I say, the wording is not clear. Does anyone here have any expertise in this area? Thanks in advance!

Name removed admin .