Can I Transfer Money from My Company Account to Myself?

Estimated reading time: 3–4 minutes · Information checked: 4 October 2026

Yes, you can. But owning the company does not mean you can treat its bank account as your personal account. A limited company is legally separate from its owner, so payments to you need a proper basis and an accurate record. That remains true when you are the only shareholder and director.

The important question is not whether the bank will let you make the transfer. It is whether the money represents salary, a dividend, an expense repayment or a loan.

What is the payment actually for?

Salary is dealt with through payroll, with Income Tax and National Insurance obligations calculated where applicable.

Dividends require sufficient distributable profits and the appropriate formalities. An expense repayment may reimburse a qualifying, documented business cost you paid personally. These are different transactions, even when they arrive in the same personal bank account.

There is also a difference between the company repaying money it owes you and you borrowing money from the company. Those movements are tracked through the director’s loan account.

There is money in the bank. Does that mean there is profit?

Not necessarily. A bank loan, money you lent the business or an advance from a customer can increase the bank balance without creating distributable profits.

Before paying a dividend, the company needs to consider the relevant accounts, accumulated profits and losses, and the Corporation Tax provision.

Take a simplified example: the company has £12,000 in the bank, but its accounts show only £3,000 in distributable profits. You cannot pay yourself an £8,000 dividend simply because the cash is available.

Writing “dividend” in the bank reference does not change that. The dividend decision must be recorded and a dividend voucher prepared, including when you are the only director. Dividends are not deductible expenses for Corporation Tax, and receiving them may create a personal tax liability.

Can I take back money I previously put into the company?

Where you lent money to the company, it can repay that debt.

For example, if the records show that the company owes you £5,000, a genuine £2,000 repayment is not salary or a dividend. The records must distinguish a loan from a capital investment. This concerns repayment of the original amount: any interest paid to you has separate tax consequences.

What if I borrow the money and pay it back later?

That may be possible, but the loan needs to be recorded, any necessary shareholder approval checked and the tax consequences considered. It is not an unrestricted drawing account that can simply be sorted out later.

For a typical owner-managed close company, a loan to a shareholder-director that is not repaid within nine months after the relevant accounting period ends can leave the company with an additional tax charge under section 455.

Separately, if the combined balance of relevant interest-free or low-interest loans exceeds £10,000 at any point during a tax year, the interest benefit may create personal tax and company reporting obligations. That £10,000 threshold does not exempt smaller loans from the company’s section 455 charge.

Paying a loan back briefly and borrowing again does not necessarily resolve the position either. Specific tax rules address those arrangements.

Plan the payment before making it

Paying yourself from your company is normal. The aim is to avoid reaching the year end with a series of transfers that nobody has properly explained.

For regular withdrawals, discuss the company’s profits, upcoming bills and your personal income needs with your accountant.

Leon Advisers can help you plan salary, dividends and your director’s loan account together. To work out what you can take from the business, we should look at your accounting records—not just the balance on your banking app.

This article provides general information for UK limited companies. The tax treatment depends on the circumstances of the company and the recipient.