Esa ? Ghost shareholder

[onestressedwoman]

Hi while i'm here

 

I am in esa support group can I be a ghost shareholder of the company if he changes to LTD company?

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

Do you mean your OH's possible company please? Do you need to be a shareholder?

 

HB

[onestressedwoman]

Honey Bee

 

Should say my husband - not really but accountant who is looking into formation has said it will serve the company better in tax relief? if husband and wife on on the paper even if I have no dealings with the companies running?

[honeybee13]

Thank you.

 

I can see it might work from a tax/NI point of view, but as you say it could be different for ESA.

 

Hopefully someone here will know the answer.

 

HB

[onestressedwoman]

Honey Bee as ever you are wonderful !

[tomtom256]

Will the accountant provide you with any dividends/payments etc from the business, as this is what will be important for the ESA claim?

 

If no money is received as a shareholder/secretary then in theory you should be ok, a decision maker would probably want to review it though to make sure.

[onestressedwoman]

For the £50 payment is it worth the trouble? But then if things go wrong will I have to go through all the atos ****e again I would think so

[honeybee13]

Honey Bee as ever you are wonderful !

 

[onestressedwoman]

Tried everywhere Honey Bee :/ disability association legal centre CAB never open Mind said they would call me back no one knows god I don't want to call DWP

[honeybee13]

That's a shame if you can't get help. At least we're here.

 

HB

[stu007]

Hi

 

The dificulty I see is if you are going to be a Ghost Shareholder of that Ltd company what % of shares in the company will you hold and you do realise you will be named on company accounts etc even though a ghost shareholder.

[unclebulgaria67]

Hi

 

The dificulty I see is if you are going to be a Ghost Shareholder of that Ltd company what % of shares in the company will you hold and you do realise you will be named on company accounts etc even though a ghost shareholder.

 

And also think of problems down the line, if something happens to the company, relationship issues etc. Suddenly your ghost shareholder role becomes a legal nightmare that you never thought would occur.

 

In regard benefits, you would have to declare this financial interest and submit paperwork to DWP showing value of any shareholding, dividends payable. This would be passed to a decision maker who might take a few months to decide. Then in the future if you are still on ESA, this will be reviewed at some point, meaning more paperwork would need to be sent off to be checked by DWP.

 

You would have to weigh all of these issues up and decide whether on balance being a ghost shareholder is a good thing or not. Is it worth the hassle ?

[BazzaS]

What is a 'ghost shareholder'?

I'm familiar with 'shadow director'........

 

A shareholder is a shareholder, and (unless different classes of share, such as preference shares, have been issued), each shareholder has the same rights to dividends / distribution of assets on the winding up of the company, per share.

It is true, though, that owning different thresholds of share can provide additional rights on e.g. voting / forcing through resolutions or proposing draft resolutions / actions.

 

If this is a tax issue, can the spouse not transfer the non-working spouse's allowance anyway?.

As for NI, shareholders don't pay NI on dividends ....... that would be a factor only if the company was paying you salary, and being an employee (salary) and being a shareholder (dividend) are two different independent statuses; you can be an employee and not a shareholder, vice versa, or can be both, or neither!.

[ericsbrother]

I can tell the future in my crystal ball and the ball says "you are going to get a tax bill"