Director's loan calculator: s455 tax, repayment deadline and benefit in kind

What this tool covers

This calculator works out what an overdrawn director's loan account costs: the company's s455 charge, the date the loan has to be repaid by to avoid it, how much each repayment saves, and, if a repayment comes too late, the earliest date HMRC will give the s455 back. It also works out the separate benefit-in-kind charge on a loan over £10,000, the tax you pay on it and the Class 1A the company pays.

It complements our guide to director's loan accounts, which explains how the account works and when drawings become a loan. Use the guide for the rules and this page for your own figures.

Read alongside: Director loan accounts explained · Director's loan benefit in kind · Writing off a director's loan.

How the loan figures are worked out

1. s455 is charged on the loan balance at the end of the company's accounting period, at the dividend upper rate for the tax year each loan was made: 35.75% for loans made from 6 April 2026 and 33.75% for loans made from 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2026.¹
2. The tax is due nine months and one day after the period ends. A repayment made before that day gives immediate relief, so the tax on the repaid part is never paid. A repayment on or after the due day does not stop the charge.³⁴
3. If the loan is repaid late, the company pays the s455 and can reclaim it, but not before nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period in which the repayment was made. The calculator assumes your later accounting periods are 12 months long and end on the same date.²³
4. Repayments of £5,000 or more followed within 30 days by new borrowing of £5,000 or more in a later period are matched against the new loan, and where £15,000 or more is owed, a repayment with arrangements to borrow again does not count. Neither rule applies to a repayment by dividend or salary, because that is taxed as income.⁵
5. If the balance was more than £10,000 at any time in the tax year, the benefit is the balance × 3.75% × days outstanding ÷ 365, less any interest you paid. It is added to your other income and taxed at your marginal rate, and the company pays Class 1A National Insurance at 15% on it.²⁶⁷⁸

Repaid the day before the deadline: £20,000 owed at 31 March 2027

The director clears the whole balance with a dividend credited to the loan account on 31 December 2027, the last day of the nine months.

Because the repayment came before the day the tax falls due, s458 relief is immediate and nothing is paid. The dividend is taxed on the director as a dividend in the usual way.³⁴

One day late: the same loan repaid on 1 January 2028

The repayment lands on the due date itself. Section 458 treats a repayment on or after the due day as late.

The company pays £7,150 and waits until nine months and a day after the end of the accounting period in which it was repaid, a full year after the repayment, for it to come back. Interest on the tax stops when the loan is repaid, but the interest is never refunded.²⁴

A £30,000 loan, part repaid, with benefit in kind

The director owed £30,000 all through 2026/27 at no interest, and repays £12,000 by dividend in September 2027. They also take a £12,570 salary and £37,700 of dividends.

The benefit is taxed at 20% itself, and because it is employment income it fills £1,125 of the basic-rate band first, pushing the same amount of dividends from 10.75% to 35.75%. That is why the tax is £506.25, 45% of the benefit. The company reports the benefit on a P11D and pays the Class 1A.⁶⁷⁸

Every figure in these examples is calculated by the same code as the calculator above, using the 2026/27 rates.

Mistakes that turn a loan into a tax bill

Director's loan and s455 calculator: FAQs

Every rate on this page was checked against these pages on 4 November 2026.

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