As a director of a company you can pay yourself in wages or dividends. You can only pay yourself via dividends if the company has enough profit to do so. The dividend payment you make to yourself comes out of profit, after corporation tax. Keep in mind even if the company has enough money in the bank to pay the dividend, it's against the law to pay the dividend if there is no available profit.
What's included
The amounts distributed to the company's shareholders in dividends.
What's not included
Salaries & Wages. These are separate from Dividends.
Any Loan to Directors should also be kept separate from the Dividends paid to shareholders.
How is it taxed?
Dividends are paid out of post corporation tax profits, therefore are already subject to the 19% corporation tax rate.
Tax on dividends is then paid at the HMRC specified rate by the director on their self assessment.
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