Figures below are for the tax year 6 April 2011- 5 April 2012.
If you are a Director and Shareholder of a limited company some of your take-home pay will be PAYE Salary and some will be Dividend income. The tax for the Salary portion of your income is paid by the company before you receive it so there's no need to provision for any additional tax due on your tax return. However you may need to provision for additional personal tax due to the Dividends you receive - but only if your total gross income for the tax year is above £42,475*.
If your total gross income** is £42,475 or less
You are not a higher rate tax payer and there is no additional tax to pay on any Dividends you receive.
If your total gross income is between £42,475 and £157,475
You are a higher rate tax payer and you should prepare to pay some additional income tax. Any proportion of Dividend received which takes you over this threshold will be taxed at a rate of 25% of the Net Dividend.
Please note that for the Tax Year 2010/2011 the threshold was £43,875.
HMRC's website provides further information.
Notes
* £42,475 is calculated by adding the tax free allowance of £7,475 to the higher rate threshold of £35,000
** Don't forget that to calculate your Gross Income you should include the Gross Dividend - this is calculated by taking the actual Dividend amount received (Net Dividend) and dividing by 0.9. E.g. £900 Net Dividend received is a Gross Dividend of £1000. Details here.