Readers’ forum: Spouse wages

I am sure it is a fundamental and probably universal law that when throwing away old newspapers there is always an item that catches the eye and gets one thinking.

The story that leapt off the page in this case was of a company boss who had been banned by regulators for apparently transferring ‘excessive’ amounts of pay to his wife. It seems that the payments were for out-of-hours administrative support and occasional hospitality at home. Originally her pay was between £5 000 and £10 000 a year which was deemed not unreasonable but this rose to about £50 000 a year.

This started me worrying about some of my clients. To a large extent I have only their word that the amount they pay their spouses is reasonable. In cases where I deal with the...