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Best SIPP Providers for Self-Employed People With Irregular Income
Last updated: August 2026 | Figures correct as of publication — always check the provider’s current fee schedule before opening an account Most SIPP comparison articles are written with a steady saver in mind — someone paying in a fixed amount every month, for decades, without much variation. That’s not how self-employed contributions usually work. … Read more
SIPP-Held Commercial Property vs Buying Premises Through the Company
Last updated: August 2026 If your business needs its own premises — an office, workshop, warehouse, retail unit, or similar — there’s a route worth knowing about that most business owners never consider: having your pension buy the building, rather than the company or you personally. It sounds unusual the first time you hear it, … Read more
Planning Your Pension Ahead of Selling the Business
Last updated: August 2026 | Tax year 2026/27 Ask a lot of business owners what their retirement plan is, and the honest answer is often “sell the business.” It’s an understandable position — the business is usually the single largest asset most owners have, and years of work have gone into building its value. But … Read more
Salary, Dividends, or Pension: How Limited Company Directors Should Weigh the Three
Last updated: August 2026 | Tax year 2026/27 If you run your own limited company, there are three main routes to get value out of it: pay yourself a salary, take dividends, or have the company contribute to your pension. Most director guidance treats this as a two-way choice — salary vs dividends — and … Read more
Emergency Fund Sizing When Your Income Isn’t Steady
Last updated: August 2026 The standard advice is three to six months of essential expenses in easy-access savings. That advice was written with a salaried employee in mind — someone whose income arrives in the same amount, on the same date, every month. If you’re self-employed, that’s not quite your situation, and the standard number … Read more
What Happens to Your Pension When You Go From Employed to Self-Employed
Last updated: August 2026 There’s a quiet drop-off that happens almost every time someone leaves employment to work for themselves, and it rarely gets talked about at the moment it matters. Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that pension saving falls sharply and immediately when people move from an employee job into … Read more
Topping Up State Pension Gaps as a Self-Employed Person
Last updated: August 2026 | Tax year 2026/27 Pension planning tends to focus entirely on SIPPs and private saving, and skips over something that’s often better value than anything a SIPP provider can offer: filling gaps in your State Pension record. For self-employed people especially — where profits can dip below the threshold that triggers … Read more
Sole Trader vs Limited Company: How Pension Contributions Actually Differ
Last updated: August 2026 | Tax year 2026/27 “Self-employed” covers two quite different legal setups — trading as a sole trader, or trading through your own limited company — and the difference matters more for pensions than almost anywhere else in your finances. The rules aren’t just administratively different; the mechanics of what you can … Read more
Director’s Pension Contributions Through Your Company: The Move Most Owner-Directors Miss
Last updated: August 2026 | Tax year 2026/27 Most limited company directors know the basic playbook: pay yourself a small salary up to the personal allowance, top up with dividends, keep National Insurance down. It’s sound advice as far as it goes. But it usually stops one step too early — because it treats the … Read more