Professional pension

We act for a company that is regulated by a professional body. We understand that the body allows spouses to be directors as long as control rests with more than 50% of the qualified directors.

We believe that this practice is common in most regulated professions now. At present the spouses do a small amount of work for the company.

They are not directors but are minority shareholders. They are paid a salary of £6 000 each which is wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the business and this is commensurate with the work they do.

It has been suggested that if the spouses were appointed directors they could be paid any amount because one does not need to justify the duties they carry out nor the rate at which they are remunerated.

One of the professional directors has proposed that his wife should be paid...