Investment & Investing

When you say unequal you mean relative to their shareholdings eg. we both have 1000 shares you receive a dividend 1.3x mine ?

Small company with five directors/shareholders (all 20%) but we haven’t yet sorted the articles of association. We wondered whether just some parties could draw a dividend or all of us. It’s question for the solicitor really but I thought I’d google it and quickly got confused!

If it were possible, other than by issuing different share classes, IR35 would be an irrelevance.

Contractors could band together as a Ltd, and arbitrarily take any amount of dividends in place of salary, irrespective of contribution.

From that, you can infer that you can't do it, or everyone would be doing it already.

Then agree as @andyfallsoff says you would create different classes of shares to allow for this

You definitely can have different share classes giving different rights to dividends.

I don’t know enough about IR35 to know whether that would be a way around it (or if the commercials of a different share class arrangement would mean few people typically want to do it).

Yes it’s possible, you create different classes of share. You’ll probably need an accountant to make sure it’s setup properly though

I meant to say than by issuing different share classes, and was admittedly focused on the Ltd contractor aspect, where HMRC can even then be circumspect of schemes that issue alphabets of share types whereby salary is disguised as dividend.

Not sure if you’ve sought advice but this sounds like a possible trust/ trust fund situation.
Best to seek advice as others have said. If you have found advice what have they suggested?

Contractors could band together as a Ltd, and arbitrarily take any amount of dividends in place of salary, irrespective of contribution.

Roughly describes how most private non-trivial, non-close LTDs function at the director level?

Not so much arbitrarily, I'd have thought?

I guess the test is whether it's salary as a dividend, versus some other, more valid, non-artificial function.

Does anyone else have an investment ISA?
I have one that's been doing FA over the last few years hovering around £18-19k. Is it worth just moving elsewhere eg, cash ISA or just leaving it... and playing the long game.

What is it invested in?

Its spread across a load of sectors eg. tech and healthcare etc

If you're after growth over the long term then a low cost passive index fund is likely the best bet:

https://monevator.com/warren-buffett-passive-investing/

https://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/

Yep I've got one. The last few years have been brutal, but if you're investing for retirement then you have to take the long view and not really care about what it's doing now.

In fact, it's better for you that prices are lower when you're putting money in, as you buy more shares for the same investment.

Is it worth just moving elsewhere

Only if you think that elsewhere will be a better investment in the future. Crystal ball-gazing.

Hopefully it all goes up over the next 10 - 15 years, and doesn't crash just before you want to pull it pout.

Thanks for the advice, yeah the long game seems to be the way.

Have a few investments atm as a bit of an experiment and Premium Bonds are by far getting the best return atm. But more Crystal ball-gazing / luck.

Just tried to start a vanguard Sipp to combine a couple of old work pension pots. It's asking me to pay £500 into the Sipp to start it up.

Does anyone know whether there is a way round this? I'd like to combine the old pots but don't have a spare £500 to chuck into a pension pot.

Don't just start with opening a new SIPP if you're transferring in.

Start here: https://secure.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/en-GB/Public/Process/Registration/Transfer/Pension/RetirementSelection

Chap who founded Nutmeg passes away at 43.

I started a new job and they will start the salary sacrifice pension after a 3 month probationary
period, can I just start a SIPP for those 3 month and claim back the tax at the end of the tax year?

You can ask to sign up to the pension scheme immediately

If any of your staff write to you asking to join a pension scheme during the postponement period, you must put them into one once you have received their request.

https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/new-employers/im-an-employer-who-has-to-provide-a-pension/work-out-who-to-put-into-a-pension/postponement

They probably don't legally have to give you the full salary sacrifice benefit but on the other hand it's probably not worth them pissing about with it to save a few quid over a couple of months.

3 months of tax bollocks? Just buy coke and champagne like normal people

That's good to know, I will talk to them, I am not so much after their part of the contribution,
more after the saved income tax since I put my sacrifice mad high to avoid any higher tax rate.

I developed an alcohol intolerance from Covid so I would have to waste it all on hookers.

alcohol intolerance

Is that a thing? How do I get it?