Category Archives: Accountant

One of the anti-avoidance measures being introduced by the latest Finance Bill potentially changes the way that certain payments to shareholders will be taxed. This may result in payments following some company liquidations being taxed as dividends instead of capital gain. The Government is concerned that the new higher rates of income tax that have applied to dividends since 6 April 2016 may tempt some shareholder / directors to extract value built up within their companies in a capital form, rather than paying out the retained profits as dividends. This is because capital gains are generally taxed at a lower rate than income, possibly as low as 10% where entrepreneur’s relief is available. For example, a higher rate taxpaying shareholder receiving £100,000 on the liquidation of his company would pay £32,500 (32.5%) if the anti-avoidance applies, whereas...