Readers’ forum: Emigration error

We act on behalf of a client who trades through a UK registered company. He and his wife own 50% of the shares each and they are both directors.

The husband does all the work and has always chosen to draw out most of the profits from the company by way of salary. He has only just told us that in September 2019 he emigrated to France. He now has a contract as an IT specialist with a French company and all his work is carried out in France. At the present time he has no intention of returning to the UK. From October to May we have continued to operate his payroll and have paid PAYE income tax and National Insurance contributions (NIC) making returns under the RTI scheme.

We now think that with the control...