Probably obvious already, but a director of Ltd. co. has to fill out P11Ds even if unsalaried (unfortunately!).
What we have done is to buy a Robinson with a ltd. co and are leasing it back to a training school. I'm paying personally (and outside the company) for all my current PPL(H) training without using my own helicopter, but then I want to do a CPL and instructor rating using the purchased helicopter for training, probably renting just the instructors through the leaseback flying school.
Hopefully the company's income from leaseback could cover the training costs.
I will buy my personal use of the company's helicopter (i.e. any hours I am not being instructed) at the same rates as the leaseback company pays, which is cheaper than normal hourly rent rates but still 'market' rates in this context.
The question is whether in this context the VAT is recoverable to train a PPL(H) qualified director for CPL with a view to extending the company's income stream to include instruction or air-taxi. The secondary issue is whether the costs of in-house training for the purely commercial skills required to make that extension are a benefit in kind to the director (me!). Probably falls into some kind of training tax legislation.
My own view is that if I pay a decent slug to the company for private flying, I can argue that there is no benefit in kind (what use is a CPL other than within the context of an aviation related business?), and as the skills development is purely business related, the VAT should be recoverable.
It will always be grey, but as the company is trading and money is coming in and going out, it's a 'whiter' shade of grey than if the company was purely spending money on training that wasn't being earned.
Lastly (long post), because most of the cost of running an R22 pops up in depreciation, you can keep the company quite profitable for a year or so, and the losses come up as a big write off when you sell the helicopter. So it won't attract the same attention as a company set up which loses money from day 1!
BW