There are effectively four ways of extracting funds from a company:
Salary
Dividends
Loan
Liquidation/Sale of shares
If a salary is drawn, PAYE/PRSI must be operated at source and the director will be liable to tax under Schedule E on same. The company would normally get a CT deduction for the payment of this salary. Where a person is stepping down from his/her role within the company, termination payments are tax-efficient from both the person’s and the company’s perspective.
Where a shareholder receives dividends, he/she is liable to tax under on the gross amount of the dividend, with a credit for the Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) deducted at source.
The company is not entitled to a CT deduction for the payment of the dividend and must pay DWT deducted to the Revenue on the 14th day of the month following the payment of the dividend.
For a director who is a shareholder of the trading company, the payment of a salary is generally more tax efficient than the payment of a dividend due to the CT deduction.
When considering a loan as a method of extracting funds, it is important to note that a loan from a company must be repaid at some stage and also can breach company law regulations, so this should generally be avoided.
If an interest-free loan is taken from the company, the company must deduct PAYE/PRSI on this deemed benefit-in-kind, i.e. loan x 13%.
If the company is a close company, it must remit Income Tax on the loan at a rate of 20/80.This Income Tax is refunded as the loan is repaid.
The liquidation or sale of shares of a company would be liable to CGT 25%. However, as opposed to the other cash extraction options, this would be seen as a once-off extraction.