Do I need to pay myself as a director if I also have a full-time job?

Question

I am a director (one of two directors) of a private Ltd. company that carries out web development work. I also have a full-time job during the week but do the web development in the evenings and weekends (in my own time).

As I already have a full-time income, I would like to spend the money earned via my company on business items whilst we're starting up rather than paying myself wages.

If we are trading and earning money, can I opt to not pay myself for my own work without breaking any regulations? I operate PAYE and have submitted non-payments up to now for each period (as we genuinely haven't paid ourselves anything yet).

At the moment we are only earning enough through the company to cover things like insurance costs, server costs and ongoing business costs month-to-month. So if we were to pay ourselves a salary also we would literally be losing money.

I'm aware of NMW requirements etc. but as we're not recording the time worked and I'm actively waiving my right to NMW is this okay?

Answer 1

can I opt to not pay myself for my own work without breaking any regulations

Perfectly possible and no you aren't breaking any regulations as long as your books are clean.

So if we were to pay ourselves a salary also we would literally be losing money

If you pay yourselves a salary, you will go into a loss and you can carry the loss on your books and offset it against any profit you earn in the future. But you will need to pay NI on your personal income from the salary you get.

I operate PAYE and have submitted non-payments up to now for each period

That is fine as long as you are not lying. You can also tell HMRC that you aren't paying anybody and they will stop sending you notices of payment. When you start paying you will need to inform HMRC to get the PAYE going.

I'm actively waiving my right to NMW

I don't think there is any law, which allows you to do that. Anybody heard about it please enlighten me. But considering you are working for yourself and not drawing a salary will be fine.