Director Loans
The Director Loan Account (DLA) tracks money flowing between the company and its directors. In UK company law, overdrawn DLAs (where the director owes the company) trigger two tax consequences:
- S455 Corporation Tax — a 33.75% charge on the overdrawn balance, refundable when the loan is repaid.
- Benefit in Kind (BiK) — taxable benefit on the overdrawn balance at HMRC's official interest rate.
Loan Types
Each DLA transaction requires a loanType which determines the sign convention and the double-entry journal accounts. The API automatically resolves the correct debit and credit accounts — there is no need to pass a contra account.
| loanType | Direction | Journal (DR → CR) |
|---|---|---|
loan_to_director | Company → Director | DLA (3200) → Bank (1200) |
loan_from_director | Director → Company | Bank (1200) → DLA (3200) |
repayment_to_company | Director → Company | Bank (1200) → DLA (3200) |
repayment_to_director | Company → Director | DLA (3200) → Bank (1200) |
dividend_offset | Director → Company | Dividends (3260) → DLA |
salary_offset | Director → Company | (handled by salary journals) |
write_off | Company expense | Expenses (8200) → DLA |
Sign convention: positive amounts = company → director (increases DLA debit balance), negative = director → company (decreases it). The API validates that the sign matches the loan type.
Connected Persons & S455 Aggregation
The balance endpoints aggregate connected persons (spouses, children, parents, associates) for S455 exposure calculation, per HMRC connected persons rules. The primary director's aggregatedBalancePence includes their own balance plus all connected persons' balances.
Year-end snapshots capture the DLA balance, S455 exposure, and BiK calculations at a point in time. These are used for CT600 filing and P11D reporting. The S455 deadline is 9 months + 1 day after the financial year end.
Requires limited company plan. All queries are RLS-scoped. Amounts are in minor units (pence).
Endpoints
https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/ List Director Loan Account transactions POST https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/ Record a Director Loan Account transaction GET https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/balance Get DLA running balance per director GET https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/balance/{directorId} Get DLA balance for a single director GET https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/s455-exposure S455 Corporation Tax exposure summary POST https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/snapshot Create year-end DLA snapshot with S455 and BiK calculations GET https://app.speybooks.com/api/v1/director-loans/snapshots List year-end DLA snapshots