Started Ltd Company last year

A question about : Started Ltd Company last year

I started a limited company last year (set it all up myself, Ј15 with HMRC) after having been offered some consultancy work, and figured it was the most tax efficient option as my income was likely to be lower than I was used to, but was doing the company I was consulting for a favour - saving ENI etc.
Good intentions and all that.....
Anyway, IR35 aside, there's a few things that I need some general advice on as with my limited income I literally can't afford an accountant.
I set up a business bank accountant but Lloyds messed up and the company couldn't make payments into that account - Lloyds cust service was awful so I just got payments into a dormant current personal account of mine for ease to be resolved later (good intentions again...).
I would then, on a monthly basis, transfer around 75% of the money from that account to my joint account to pay bills, mortgage etc.
I haven't got round yet (7 months on) to doing payroll, so need to retrospectively generate payslips (I will use payroo) and do my real-time returns to HMRC for the company with me as it's employee.
I know its most tax efficient to pay myself Ј833 per month to stay under the tax free allowance, thus not incurring any income tax via PAYE, and reducing the NI liability. But I believe I may have scuppered that having made transfers from one account to another of higher amounts. Can anyone clarify?
Also, I have incurred and recorded in detail my ongoing expenses, that I think are non-taxable, such as office equipment, mileage expenses, mobile phone, IT expenses, use of home office, that I believe I can offset against my taxable pay. How do I treat this? Can I reflect these as non-taxable payments on the retrospective payslips, and thus reduce my effective pay (I think this is factual and honest but don't want to fall foul of HMRC rules) or do I need to record the entire transfer as pay and then put in a personal rebate claim via a P87D or similar?
Thank you for any advice and hope it makes sense...

Best answers:

• Things that you are paying for on behalf of the company and then claiming back from the company like travel are expenses not pay and so do not go on your payslips. Allowable expenses from your perspective are tax free but if the company can then offset the expense from its profits is a separate question and you need to be aware the difference between expenses (eg a 12 month license on software) and capital purchases (eg a laptop)
  Given you've messed up by taking the company's money into your account, not done PAYE submissions on time etc it would be sensible to get advice from an accountant at least for this time and pay more than the bare minimum for advice on how to do these things properly going forward. The fines for wrong/ late filing could very easily be a lot more than the accountants fees
• A very similar thread a few weeks back may be worth looking at:-
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=5137923
• I have rung round a few accountants for quotes. A couple don't seem to think it an issue me getting them to run a year end payroll with nominal monthly pay figures, some suggesting less than Ј700 per month in order to pay absolute minimum NI as well as below tax threshold. I asked whether the fact I had transferred more than that was an issue and they said not really as long as I can account for it??
  As for the business bank account, as I technically have one, but not using it, I have been advised I should be OK at a push...
  Thanks for all of the advice so far.
• I find it strange that some accountancy firms are recommending less than Ј700 monthly pay, when as you've already stated Ј833 is the most efficient amount - employers NI under Ј2000 per year can be reclaimed making it more cost effective to pay employee NI and avoid corporation tax on the additional part of the salary.