As a business owner you may well have some sort of pension. This may be a old style Retirement Annuity Contract, a Personal Pension Plan, an Executive Pension Plan or a Small Self Administered Scheme (SSAS) all of which we can advise on.

But a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is probably the most appropriate scheme for business owners/ shareholding directors, as it allows you to make decisions about where you invest your pension savings. So instead of leaving it to somebody else to manage your pension fund, you and your adviser take control. For businesses this can be a very useful. One of the great advantages of a SIPP is that it allows a wide range of investment types including direct investment in commercial property, allowing you to put any business premises and rental income from it into your retirement savings or it may be possible to use the pension to invest in other items used within the business.

A SIPP is set up as a trust, separating pension funds from other assets for Inheritance Tax purposes and is also a practical safety net to protect funds away from the business.

A major advantage of a pension is that money invested by the business is a legitimate business expense so can be used to reduce the profit before it is assessed for corporation tax. Naturally the normal rules apply that you are unable to start to draw from the pension fund until age 55 so although a pension is about providing a pot of money on which to draw in retirement, it can also be a effective tax planning tool during the years you are building this up.

* Past performance is not a guide to future performance and as with any investment, the value of funds can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in.

* The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate taxation and trust advice.

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