But they would be being 'paid' perhaps double the employee rate. Paying yourself and spouse with dividends (20% tax) rather than a salary, taking lots of business expenses, and withholding income until needed.
A few years ago this was common in many London investment banking dev jobs - it appealed to both the companies and certain developers. Often those who had other business interests.
I had a colleague whose contracting company was paying his wife in gold via an offshore company to further reduce tax paid (I only remember that from a drunken discussion so can't swear to its truthfulness)
Dangerous now, HMRC have the power to retroactively declare schemes like that illegal and go after back-taxes and penalties. The space used to be rife with those sorts of schemes, I used to get phone calls - "We found your CV on a recruitment site, we understand you're a contractor. How would you like to keep 95% of your gross earnings?"
> But they would be being 'paid' perhaps double the employee rate. Paying yourself and spouse with dividends (20% tax) rather than a salary, taking lots of business expenses, and withholding income until needed.
Dividends only save NI rather than tax as only first 2K is tax free, then its' 7.5% to the end of the lower rate band, and then something else in the higher one (andahdn as they come from profits corporation tax has already been paid on them)
Real savings come from avoiding NI, and having partners as co-employees / directors / shareholders so the 'income' can be split between two people rather than one
Offshore companies and gold bars is ripe for HMRC taking a closer look
A few years ago this was common in many London investment banking dev jobs - it appealed to both the companies and certain developers. Often those who had other business interests.
I had a colleague whose contracting company was paying his wife in gold via an offshore company to further reduce tax paid (I only remember that from a drunken discussion so can't swear to its truthfulness)