Pay yourself a salary through your own company properly: director National Insurance on the annual method, an FPS every month, and a P60 at year end. No accountant on retainer required.
Sole director · £12,570 a year · tax code 1257L
Director NI
Annual earnings period, applied automatically
If you own a limited company and pay yourself a salary, you are an employer and the company runs payroll, even if you are the only person on it. That means a PAYE scheme, a Full Payment Submission each month you pay yourself, and National Insurance worked out on the special annual basis that applies to directors.
PayAdjust handles the director-specific parts without you needing to know they exist. Tick “director” on your own record and NI switches to the annual earnings period method, pro-rated correctly if you were appointed part-way through the year. Months with no salary are reported with a no-payment EPS. Your P60 is produced in April. If you add a second director, a spouse, or your first employee, nothing changes.
Directors’ National Insurance is calculated on the annual earnings period, with thresholds pro-rated for mid-year appointments, exactly as HMRC’s guidance requires.
£15/month with every feature, including HMRC filing and your P60. Annual billing brings it lower still. There is no per-director surcharge.
Not paying yourself this month? File a no-payment EPS in one click so HMRC does not expect an FPS or send a late-filing notice.
From April 2026 company car and fuel benefits must be payrolled. Record the car once and the cash equivalent is added to each payslip and FPS.
A one-person company has a short list, but every item on it is specific to directors.
Directors’ NI is assessed on cumulative earnings for the whole tax year rather than month by month. PayAdjust applies this automatically when you mark yourself as a director.
Enter the tax week of appointment and thresholds are pro-rated for the weeks you served, following HMRC’s rules. The FPS carries the appointment week.
Run the month, file in one click, see HMRC’s acceptance. The HMRC mark is stored with the submission.
Pick “No payments this period” and PayAdjust files the EPS that tells HMRC nobody was paid.
Tick the box in settings and PayAdjust files the claim on your EPS. A company whose only employee paid above the secondary threshold is its director is not eligible, and PayAdjust will not stop you claiming, so check first.
Both are generated for you and available to download from your own employee login.
Every payslip, submission and setting change is kept in an audit log. Export the lot as CSV when your accountant does the year-end accounts.
Enter your PAYE reference, Accounts Office reference and Government Gateway details. Add yourself as an employee and tick “director”.
Set a monthly amount. If you are not sure what to pay yourself, read the guide below and talk to your accountant; it is easy to change later.
Your payslip is calculated with director NI on the annual method. Approve it and file the FPS in one click.
Transfer your salary from the company account. The Taxes tab shows anything owed to HMRC and when it is due.
Everything included
Includes 10 employees, then £2/month each. Pay annually and save 40%.
| Employees | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £15/mo | £108/yr |
| 2 | £15/mo | £108/yr |
| 5 | £15/mo | £108/yr |
One director, two directors or a director plus a couple of staff all sit inside the included seats, so you pay the base price.
Full pricing detailsMost owner-directors take a modest salary and the rest as dividends. The salary matters for two reasons beyond the cash: a salary at or above the Lower Earnings Limit earns a qualifying year towards the State Pension, and salary is an allowable expense for Corporation Tax where dividends are not. To pay a salary, the company must be registered as an employer and report it through PAYE like any other employer.
How much to pay yourself depends on the year’s National Insurance thresholds, whether the company has other employees, and your own tax position. That is a conversation for your accountant. The take-home pay calculator shows what a given salary looks like after tax and NI.
Employees pay NI on each pay period in isolation. Directors are different: because they can control the timing of their own pay, HMRC assesses their NI on an annual earnings period, comparing cumulative pay for the year against annual thresholds. In practice that means a director paid evenly through the year pays little or no NI until cumulative pay crosses the annual threshold, then pays on everything above it.
If you were appointed as a director part-way through the tax year, the thresholds are pro-rated for the weeks remaining. PayAdjust does this from the tax week of appointment you enter, and the FPS reports both the appointment week and the director NI method to HMRC.
Employment Allowance reduces the employer National Insurance a company pays. A company where the director is the only employee paid above the secondary threshold cannot claim it. If you later take on a second employee paid above the threshold, you may become eligible. PayAdjust files the claim on your EPS when you tick the box; checking eligibility is your call.
HMRC expects an FPS whenever you pay yourself and an EPS saying “no payment” for any tax month you do not. Skipping both earns a late-filing notice. PayAdjust makes the no-payment EPS a one-click option alongside creating a pay run, and if the company goes dormant for a stretch you can declare a period of inactivity instead.
Running the payroll is the easy part. Choosing the salary, deciding on dividends, and timing both around the company’s year end are worth professional advice. Many directors use PayAdjust to run the monthly mechanics and invite their accountant as an admin to check it. If your accountant already runs payroll for you, see payroll software for accountants.
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