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Find out how the new NI rules will affect your retirement pot
Company Director Income Planner
For single-director limited companies with no employees or other income sources. Model how company profit is allocated across salary, dividends, pensions, and reserves.
How should I pay myself as a company director?
Most UK directors combine salary, dividends, and pension contributions — the balance depends on your profit, personal income needs, and tax position.
This tool brings together our component calculators — the salary calculator, dividend calculator, and pension contribution calculator — to model combined outcomes. For background on the tax rules and logic, see the Director Income Planning Guide.
How would you like to plan?
Choose your starting point — you can switch modes at any time
What are you planning?
Choose whether you're planning for the full tax year or just your next withdrawal
💼 Company Position
Your company's total profit this year before any drawings
Your company's total profit before any salary, dividends, expenses, or pension contributions.
📤 Already Extracted This Year
Business expenses, personal income, and pension contributions already paid
Running costs like rent, software, utilities, accountant fees that have already left the company.
Personal Income
Money you've taken home this year
Salary paid through PAYE this tax year (affects tax bands).
The actual cash you received after dividend tax — not the gross amount declared.
Total dividends declared this tax year (before tax). Used for tax band stacking and to reduce the distributable pool.
Income from elsewhere?
Employment, self-employment, rental, etc.
Retirement Contributions
Pension contributions already made this year
Contributions made directly by the company to your pension.
Contributions you've made personally (net of basic rate relief).
Total extracted from company: £12,570.00
• Business expenses: £0.00
• Personal income: £12,570.00
• Pension contributions: £0.00
🏦 Company Reserves
Amount to keep in the company for future expenses, buffer, or investment
How much you want to keep in your company for working capital, future investments, or as a buffer.
Available for extraction: £70,000.00
Total Profit: £100,000
− Business Expenses: £0
− Reserves: £30,000
🎯 Your Annual Target
Total take-home income you want this tax year
The total amount you want in your personal bank account this tax year (including what you've already taken).
🎯 Pension & Retirement (optional)
Tell us about your retirement plans to help us optimize your Balanced strategy
Not sure what annual retirement income you need?
Our Retirement Goal Calculator helps you work out exactly how much you'll need based on your lifestyle, when you want to retire, and what income you'll require. It's much more detailed than the simple calculation we do here.
Approximate total value of all your pensions combined.
How many years from now until you plan to retire? (e.g., if you're 45 and plan to retire at 67, enter 22)
How much annual income you'd like in retirement, in today's money.
💡 How this helps: When you select the Balanced strategy, we'll use these details to suggest a pension contribution level that keeps you on track for retirement while still leaving money in your company for flexibility.
Have You Started Taking Your Pension?
Not including your 25% tax-free lump sum
🎯 Optimization Strategy
Choose a strategy to auto-adjust your allocation
Meet income and company liquidity needs whilst optimising income and pension allocation to maximise total wealth (cash + pension).
By maximizing pension contributions, you bypass Corporation Tax, Employer's NI, and Employee's NI. Your pension grows tax-free and you can access it from age 57 (rising to 58 in 2028). This approach may suit those who don't need the cash immediately and want to build long-term wealth efficiently.
💰 Your Optimal Income Strategy
"Optimal" here means the most tax-efficient income mix based on the assumptions shown. Changing your salary, dividends, or pension contributions will produce different results.
✅ You've already taken £12,570 salary this year (£12,570 total). You need an additional £27,430 to reach your £40,000 annual target.
To reach your £40,000 annual target, this scenario models taking an additional £27,430.00 dividends and contributing £19,561.27 to your pension via your company.
Why this is the most tax-efficient route:
By contributing £19,561.27 to your company pension via salary sacrifice, you reduce taxable profit and save £3,716.64 in Corporation Tax at an effective rate of 19% (small band). The pension contribution itself becomes long-term wealth. Combined, this gives you £72,131.27 in total wealth (£52,570.00 cash + £19,561.27 pension) — £21,088.77 more than taking everything as dividends, where Corporation Tax would have eroded the pot before distribution. Your pension grows tax-free and you can access it from age 55 (57 from 2028).
Taking the £27,430.00 you need now as dividends (rather than salary) saves National Insurance, though you do pay some dividend tax. Overall, this strategy gives you your target income while building £19,561.27 in pension wealth — essentially for free.
Additional Wealth Extracted
£72,131.27
Total Tax & NI Paid
£4,738.73
Effective Tax Rate
6.8%
This scenario uses salary sacrifice
Rather than paying Employer NI on your full salary and making a separate pension contribution, this model structures your pension as salary sacrifice — reducing your contractual salary and having your company pay the equivalent amount directly into your pension. This saves £1,136 in Employer NI, adding £1,136 to your pension at no extra cost to your company.
🎛️ Customize Your Income Strategy
Move the sliders to tailor your income strategy yourself
Overall Wealth Extracted
Net Cash
£40,000.00
Pension
£19,561.27
Pension Tax Saved
£3,716.64
Total
£63,277.91
- 💼 Salary
- 📊 Net Dividends
- 🏦 Pension
- 💸 Tax & NI
Allocation Breakdown
The pie chart shows where your company profit goes—green slices are money you keep (cash or pension), red is tax paid to HMRC.
📋 Detailed Breakdown: Maximise Wealth
Full-year position including amounts already taken and new extraction plan.
| Total company profit | £100,000.00 |
| Less: Company reserves | -£30,000.00 |
| = Available profit | £70,000.00 |
| PRE-CT DEDUCTIONS (reduce your Corporation Tax bill) | |
| Less: Salary paid | -£12,570.00 |
| Less: Employer NI on salary | £0.00 |
| Eliminated via salary sacrifice (saving £1,136) | |
| Less: Employer pension contribution (via salary sacrifice) | -£19,561.27 |
| Includes £1,136 Employer NI saving net of additional Corporation Tax | |
| = Taxable profit | £7,868.73 |
| CORPORATION TAX | |
| 📗 Small Profits Rate (19%) | |
| Less: Corporation Tax (19%) | -£1,495.06 |
| = Post-CT pool | £30,673.67 |
| DIVIDEND DISTRIBUTION | |
| Post-CT pool | £30,673.67 |
| Less: Gross dividend paid out | -£30,673.67 |
| = Retained in company | £0.00 |
| CASH ALREADY RECEIVED THIS YEAR | |
| Net salary already taken | £12,570.00 |
| SALARY RECEIVED | |
| Salary already taken this year | £12,570.00 |
| No further salary recommended this plan | |
| Total salary for year | |
| DIVIDEND RECEIVED | |
| Gross dividend | £30,673.67 |
| Less: Dividend Tax | -£3,243.67 |
| Based on total income: £12,570.00 salary + £30,673.67 dividends | |
| = Net dividend | £27,430.00 |
| = Total net cash in hand | £52,570.00 |
| PENSION | |
| Employer pension contribution | £19,561.27 |
| = Total pension contributed (gross) | £19,561.27 |
| 💰 CT saved by pension contribution (+19% on £19,561.27) | +£3,716.64 |
| Pension reduced taxable profit — this is your CT saving bonus | |
| YOUR TOTAL OUTCOME (FULL YEAR) | |
| Total net cash in hand | £52,570.00 |
| Pension contributed (gross) | £19,561.27 |
| = Total wealth extracted | £72,131.27 |
| Retained in company (post-CT) | £0.00 |
Pension Advantage: Reduced National Insurance
Surplus Profit Extracted
Tax Saved
£21,088.77
vs taking all as dividends (same profit)
Total Wealth Created
£72,131.27
Net cash + pension contributed
Effective Tax Rate
6.8%
On profit available to extract
Excludes salary already taken earlier this tax year.
These three metrics summarize your extraction efficiency: how much wealth you're creating, how much tax you're paying, and your overall tax rate compared to taking everything as dividends.
Save to Your Financial Plan
Your saved details will pre-fill other calculators automatically so you do not have to re-key information and can access your saved calculations at any time.
What's Next?
Salary vs Dividend Calculator
Compare salary vs dividend tax costs instantly
Explore CalculatorDirector's Income Planning Guide
Deep-dive into salary, dividend, and pension strategies
Read GuideRetirement Goal Calculator
Calculate your retirement savings target using the 25× rule
Explore CalculatorPension Allowance Calculator
Calculate your contribution space with carry-forward rules
Explore CalculatorHow Much to Save for Retirement
Understand how much you need to save for a comfortable retirement
Read GuideAbout the author
Melanie Reed is a fintech and product specialist with 13+ years' experience building mortgage, investment, savings and retirement tools at companies including Aviva, Lendinvest, Money Advice Trust and Luno. She develops calculators and content that simplify complex UK financial decisions, covering pensions, mortgages, tax-efficiency and long-term savings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Estimates only, not financial advice. Based on current UK tax rules.
Assumptions & Calculation Methodology
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