Under the provisions of social welfare legislation, the social insurance status of spouses engaged in a family business varies according to individual circumstances. Spouses who are engaged in a business partnership are treated as individual self employed contributors. Both spouses make social insurance contributions and will be eligible, in due course, to qualify individually and in their own right for social insurance pensions, including old age contributory pension. While there are specific requirements in company law regarding business partnerships, there is no restriction on married couples, per se, carrying on a commercial venture as a business partnership. Alternatively, where a family business is incorporated as a limited company, spouses who are engaged in the business pay PRSI either as employees of the company or as self-employed persons, if they are the proprietary directors of that company.