Take money out of your company that isn't salary, a dividend or a genuine expense, and it lands in your director's loan account. Leave that account overdrawn and it triggers tax charges that catch a lot of owner-directors by surprise. From April 2026 the main charge is bigger than it used to be.
If you're a director running a company that's making real profit, one of the most tax-efficient decisions you can make is paying pension contributions through the company rather than from your personal income.
Running a limited company means you only pay corporation tax on profit, not on revenue. That profit is calculated by taking your income and subtracting your expenses. But not every expense you incur gets deducted.
If the only financial information you look at each year is your statutory accounts, you're making decisions about your business based on figures that are six to nine months old.