Last updated 9 October 2026View as Markdown

Director salary and dividends

POST /v1/director-pay Needs a key

A director paid from their own company: corporation tax with marginal relief, employer and employee NI, dividend tax and take-home. Give a salary and dividends, or leave the salary out to try the usual choices.

Request

A JSON body. Fields not listed here are rejected.

Field	Type	Description
`region` required	string	Where they live: england, scotland, wales or northern_ireland. One of `england`, `scotland`, `wales`, `northern_ireland`.
`profit` required	number	The company's profit for the year before the director's salary and its employer NI. Allowed: 0 or more, under 100,000,000.
`tax_year` optional	string	The tax year, such as 2026-27. The latest when not given. Default `"2026-27"`.
`salary` optional	number	The director's salary for the year; the usual choices are tried when not given. Allowed: 0 or more, under 100,000,000.
`dividends` optional	number	Dividends paid; all the profit left after corporation tax when not given. Allowed: 0 or more, under 100,000,000.
`employer_pension` optional	number	The company's pension contribution for the director. Allowed: 0 or more, under 100,000,000. Default `0`.
`employment_allowance` optional	boolean	Sets the Employment Allowance against employer NI. Not available where the director is the only employee paid above the secondary threshold. Default `false`.
`student_loans` optional	array of string	Each loan they repay: plan_1, plan_2, plan_4, plan_5, postgraduate. One of `plan_1`, `plan_2`, `plan_4`, `plan_5`, `postgraduate`. Default `[]`.

Example

curl https://api.checktakehomepay.co.uk/v1/director-pay \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHECKTAKEHOMEPAY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "region": "england",
  "profit": 100000
}'

const response = await fetch('https://api.checktakehomepay.co.uk/v1/director-pay', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.CHECKTAKEHOMEPAY_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "region": "england",
    "profit": 100000
  }),
});
const result = await response.json();

import os
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.checktakehomepay.co.uk/v1/director-pay",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['CHECKTAKEHOMEPAY_API_KEY']}"},
    json={"region": "england", "profit": 100000},
)
result = response.json()

Response

200, with the result and what produced it: tax_year, engine, hmrc_test_data, assumptions and sources. This is the example's real response. Every field's type is in the OpenAPI document.

200 OK

{
  "tax_year": "2026-27",
  "engine": "2026-27.1",
  "hmrc_test_data": "rest of UK and Welsh tax v1.0, Scottish tax v1.1, NI v1.0, directors NI v1.0, student loans v1.0",
  "salary_basis": "usual_choices",
  "company": {
    "salary": 12570,
    "employer_ni": 1135.5,
    "employer_pension": 0,
    "taxable_profit": 86294,
    "corporation_tax": 19117.91,
    "dividends": 67176.59,
    "retained": 0
  },
  "director": {
    "salary": 12570,
    "employee_ni": 0,
    "dividends": 67176.59,
    "income_tax": {
      "adjusted_net_income": 79746.59,
      "allowances": 12570,
      "income_bands": [],
      "dividend_bands": [
        {
          "rate": 0,
          "taxable": 500,
          "tax": 0
        },
        {
          "rate": 10.75,
          "taxable": 37200,
          "tax": 3999
        },
        {
          "rate": 35.75,
          "taxable": 29476,
          "tax": 10537.67
        }
      ],
      "marriage_allowance_reduction": 0,
      "tax": 14536.67
    },
    "student_loans": {},
    "take_home": 65209.92
  },
  "tried": [
    {
      "salary": 0,
      "take_home": 63605.65
    },
    {
      "salary": 5000,
      "take_home": 64456.97
    },
    {
      "salary": 6708,
      "take_home": 64627.12
    },
    {
      "salary": 12570,
      "take_home": 65209.92
    }
  ],
  "assumptions": [
    "With no salary given, the usual salaries are tried (none, the secondary threshold, the lower earnings limit, the primary threshold, and with Employment Allowance the salary it covers) as far as the profit can pay them, each with the rest as dividends; the one leaving the most is shown. This is not a full search: at high profits another salary can leave a little more.",
    "Corporation tax is for a 12-month accounting period with no associated companies, with marginal relief between the limits.",
    "Employment Allowance (employment_allowance) is not available to a company whose only employee paid above the secondary threshold is a director: the caller checks it applies.",
    "The director's NI is on the annual earnings period, category A. Income tax is on the year's salary and dividends together, as Self Assessment settles it."
  ],
  "sources": [
    "https://www.gov.uk/corporation-tax-rates",
    "https://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-marginal-relief",
    "https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends",
    "https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/payroll-technical-specifications-national-insurance",
    "https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027",
    "https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/business-advisers/automatic-enrolment-guide-for-business-advisers/minimum-contribution-increases-planned-by-law-phasing"
  ]
}

Errors

400 INVALID_INPUT: the message names each field that is wrong.
401 UNAUTHENTICATED (no key) or INVALID_KEY (a key we don’t know, or a revoked one).

Every code, and how to handle them: Errors.