Dividend Tax Calculator FAQ

No. Your company profit, salary, dividend amount, and every rate in the settings panel are calculated entirely in your browser tab. Nothing is sent anywhere while you type or watch the breakdown update. The only network requests this page ever makes go to Stripe, and only if you choose to subscribe to unlock unlimited PDF exports.

No — an estimate only. It applies simplified HMRC-style formulas for Corporation Tax, Income Tax, dividend tax, and National Insurance to whatever figures you enter, but it doesn't know your full personal tax position: other income, pensions, student loans, Scottish Income Tax rates, marriage allowance, IR35 status, or multiple/associated companies. Always confirm against gov.uk or an accountant before deciding how to pay yourself.

It follows HMRC's real ordering rules, not a flat blended rate. Your salary is taxed first, using your Personal Allowance and the basic/higher/additional Income Tax bands. Your dividends then stack on top of that: they use up any Personal Allowance your salary didn't, then the £500 Dividend Allowance (taxed at 0%), then whatever's left is taxed at 8.75%, 33.75%, or 39.35% depending on which band it falls into once your salary is accounted for. That's why increasing your salary can push your dividends into a higher tax band even though the dividend amount hasn't changed.

Corporation Tax is 19% on profit at or below £50,000, 25% on profit at or above £250,000, and tapers between the two using "marginal relief" so it isn't a sudden jump at either threshold. This tool calculates that taper for you. It assumes a single company with no associated companies and no other investment income, which is the common case for a one-person contracting business — if you have associated companies, the real relief works out differently, so treat this tool's figure as indicative in that situation.

That's exactly what the "Salary-only comparison" panel is for — it shows what you'd take home from the same company profit if it were all paid as salary, so you can see in pounds how your current split compares. In general, a small salary (often set at or near the Personal Allowance) plus dividends for the rest tends to be more tax-efficient than salary alone, because dividends aren't subject to National Insurance at all — but the exact numbers depend on your profit level, so check the comparison for your own figures rather than assuming a rule of thumb applies.

Employment Allowance lets an eligible company reduce its employer National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year. It's off by default here because a company whose only paid employee is also a director owning more than a small share of it — the most common one-person-contractor setup — is specifically excluded from claiming it. If your company has other employees or a different ownership structure, check your eligibility on gov.uk and tick the box; the calculator will apply the allowance to employer NI accordingly.

No. IR35 is about whether your contract counts as "disguised employment" for tax purposes, not about how a confirmed outside-IR35 limited company should split salary and dividends — which is what this tool calculates. If you're not sure whether IR35 applies to your contracts, that's a separate question worth getting proper advice on before these numbers are relevant.

Yes — every threshold and rate in the "Tax settings & rates" panel is an editable input, not a hidden constant: Income Tax, dividend tax, employee NI, employer NI, and Corporation Tax are all grouped separately. They default to published 2026/27 figures, but National Insurance and Corporation Tax rates in particular can change between Budgets, so this is there to keep the tool accurate if HMRC's numbers change. A "Reset to 2026/27 defaults" button undoes any changes.

In your browser's localStorage, on your device only — not on a server, not in an account. That also means it doesn't follow you between browsers or devices, and clearing your browser's site data for this domain deletes it permanently, including your free-export count — unless you've downloaded a backup first (see the next question).

Yes — the "Backup & restore" panel downloads your saved inputs and tax settings as a single .json file. Re-import that file on this browser or any other browser/device to restore them exactly. It never includes your subscription status or free-export count, so a backup file can't be used to unlock paid features without actually paying.

Yes — the "Payslip" panel turns the salary you've entered above into a payslip PDF for one pay period (Monthly, Weekly, or Annual), using the same live Income Tax and Employee NI figures as the breakdown above, so editing your salary updates the next payslip too. It produces a document only — it doesn't submit anything to HMRC. If you're actually running PAYE, even just for yourself as director, you still need RTI-compliant payroll software (HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools is free) to report each payment on or before payday; this isn't a substitute for that. Generating a payslip requires the same active trial, subscription, or lifetime purchase as "Export PDF breakdown" below.

No sign-up or account with us — but exporting a formatted PDF breakdown or generating a payslip now requires an active free trial, subscription, or lifetime purchase, so you'll go through Stripe Checkout first, which does ask for a card. The live calculator stays free with no card needed at all. That's the only information you'd ever give us, and it goes straight to Stripe, not to us.

The live calculator — every figure, the full breakdown, and the salary-only comparison — is free and unlimited, forever. Exporting a formatted PDF breakdown or generating a payslip requires a subscription: start with a 7-day free trial (card required, nothing charged until day 8), then it's £5/month for unlimited PDF exports and payslips. Cancel anytime during the trial and you won't be charged at all. Prefer not to have a recurring charge? A one-time £25 lifetime purchase unlocks the same unlimited access, paid once, no trial needed, no recurring charges.

No. Stripe holds your card details but doesn't charge anything until the trial ends on day 8. Cancel any time before then from "Manage or cancel subscription" (shown once your trial is active) and you'll never be charged. We ask for a card up front because that's what makes the trial a real one — rather than a resettable browser counter, which is how the old one-free-export model worked.

Click "Manage or cancel subscription" — it appears next to the subscribed badge once unlocked in that browser. It opens Stripe's own billing portal, where you can see your next renewal date and cancel in a couple of clicks, no email needed. It only works in the same browser you subscribed in, since there's no account here — if that's not available, email pdftoolkit@icloud.com and we'll cancel it for you.

They're sibling products from the same maker, sharing a visual style and the "nothing uploaded" approach, but they're entirely separate: separate page, separate subscription, separate trial. PDF Toolkit merges, compresses, resizes, and rotates existing PDFs; the Invoice Generator creates invoices, quotes, and expense reports for clients; the Expense Log & Tax Pot Estimator is for sole traders tracking their own Self Assessment tax; this tool is specifically for limited company directors working out salary vs dividends.

It should — the layout adapts down to a single column on a small screen — though it hasn't been formally tested across a wide range of mobile hardware yet.