ChadSan

Your accountant set up your salary/dividend split in year one.

But that was a different tax year. The rules have changed and your structure probably hasn’t.

Here’s what’s shifted for 2026/27 that most tech founder
directors haven’t reviewed:

→ Employment Allowance is now £10,500 — if you have
employees, your salary strategy needs to account for this
→ Employer NI now kicks in at 15% from £5k — your total
payroll position changes the calculation
→ The gap between dividend tax and salary tax has narrowed
— the old rule of thumb may cost you more now
→ Company pension contributions from the business:
CT-deductible, no income tax, no NI — still the most
tax-efficient extraction most founders aren’t using

A remuneration review should happen every April. Not when
it’s already halfway through the tax year.

DM us ‘REVIEW’ and we’ll take a look at your current
structure — no commitment, no cost. 👇

💾 Save this for your next accountant conversation.

Employer NI is now 15%. The threshold dropped to £5,000. Most tech founders haven’t modelled the real impact on their headcount plans.

Employer National Insurance is now 15% — up from 13.8%.

And the threshold dropped from £9,100 to £5,000.

That means you’re paying NI on a much larger chunk of every salary from pound one.

For a team of 5 people on £35k each — that’s roughly £4,000+ more per year in tax before you hire anyone new.

What most tech founders are missing:

💡 The Employment Allowance increased to £10,500 — and the £100k cap was removed. Many small studios can now wipe out their NI bill entirely.

💡 Salary sacrifice (pension, etc.) reduces the NI base — worth reviewing your package structure

💡 Contractor vs employee decisions have got more complicated — the gap just got wider

Before you hire your next person, model the full cost.

Save this 💾 and tag a founder who needs to see it 👇

A pleasure for our team to attend the golf day this week to support an organisation doing some important work in the community ⛳️

Here’s some words from our team: “Amongst many things, one thing that really stood out to me was hearing more about their digital workshops for older people. We often talk about how brilliant technology is, how quickly it’s improving, and how much easier it makes life - but it’s easy to forget that for many people, keeping up with constant change is a real struggle especially after a lifetime of adapting to wave after wave of new advancements over recent decades.”

A fantastic day for a great cause, and a reminder of the great work that the whole team of staff and volunteers at Age UK South Gloucestershire do everyday!

Shoutout to also on our team!

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is live and the first deadline is closer than you think.

If you’re a sole trader or landlord earning over £50k, the annual self-assessment return you’ve always filed in January has been replaced.

From April 2026, you’re now required to submit to HMRC four times a year, plus a year-end declaration.

That’s five submissions instead of one.
Your first quarterly deadline is 7 August 2026. That’s less than 3 months away.
Here’s what you need to do right now:

→ Check whether your gross income from self-employment or property exceeds £50k
→ Sign up for HMRC’s MTD for ITSA service
→ Choose compatible software — Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent all qualify
→ Get your first quarter’s records in order

And it doesn’t stop there. The threshold drops to £30k in April 2027, and £20k in 2028. This is coming for most self-employed people eventually.

We’ve broken it all down in the carousel above. Save it, share it with a founder friend who needs it.

If you want to talk through what this means for your situation specifically — drop a comment or send us a DM. We’re here.

SoleTrader HMRC

Another amazing event today at our ChadSan Lunch Bandwidth event! 🧡👥

of speaking today on navigating the high-stakes intersection of capital and creativity.

The UK Games Fund just reopened with government backing. Here’s what £250,000 looks like for a UK game studio.

🎮 Big news for the UK gaming industry.

The UK Games Fund has relaunched with a new structure under the Government’s Games Growth package and there’s serious money on the table.

Three tracks are open to UK-based games development companies:

💰 Starter Fund — £20,000 grants for university graduate companies and early-stage start-ups. Applications opening soon.

🚀 Prototype Fund — up to £100,000 for studios with commercial experience developing own-IP. Deadline has now passed — watch for the next window.

🏆 Content Fund — up to £250,000 for established studios with high-growth plans and third-party investment already in place. Expressions of interest open now.

The fund has been running since 2015 and is delivered by the UK Games Fund under DCMS mandate.

If you’re building a game studio, this is worth 30 minutes of your time.

Tag a studio founder below👇