My son is a co-director of a property company owned by my wife. He has no income from this company other than a monthly refund of his loan account. He works full-time paying tax through the PAYE system. I am receiving conflicting advice for self-assessment purposes. Does he need to complete an annual self-assessment return? 

Arthur Weller replies  

HMRC's position used to be that a director had to submit a self-assessment return simply because they were a director, even if they received no income from the company. However, HMRC changed their position, and now no longer require a director who receives no income from the company to submit a self-assessment return. See HMRC’s Agent Update 69 and the tax case Symes v Revenue and Customs [2018] UKFTT 42 (TC).