Guide · The three filings
Accounts, tax return, confirmation statement: which one is due, and who gets it?
Three filings with similar names, two organisations, different dates. Once you can see them side by side, they stop being confusing.
Updated . Every rule here is quoted from GOV.UK; the sources are at the end.
You can prepare everything now; sending to HMRC and Companies House opens soon.
The short version
- Annual accounts: the company's financial year, sent to Companies House.
- Company Tax Return: the company's Corporation Tax, sent to HMRC with the accounts.
- Confirmation statement: a check of the company's details on the public register, sent to Companies House. It isn't about the company's trading or profit.
Annual accounts
Annual accounts, also called statutory accounts, are prepared from the company's financial records at the end of its financial year.(source 1) They include a balance sheet, a profit and loss account and notes, and a directors' report unless the company is a micro-entity.(source 2) Every year's accounts after that: due at Companies House 9 months after the company's financial year ends.(source 3)
The Company Tax Return
Your company must file a Company Tax Return if HMRC sends it a 'notice to deliver a Company Tax Return'.(source 4) Filing the return is how you work out the company's Corporation Tax bill, and its profit or loss for Corporation Tax, which is not the same figure as the profit in its accounts.(source 5) The return is due 12 months after the end of the accounting period it covers.(source 6) A small company or micro-entity still sends its full statutory accounts to HMRC, as part of the Company Tax Return.(source 7)
More on the Company Tax Return (CT600).
The confirmation statement
Every year you check that what Companies House hold about your company is right. That check is the confirmation statement.(source 8) It covers the registered office, directors, secretary and where the records are kept; the share capital and shareholders; the SIC code; and the people with significant control.(source 9) You file at least one every 12 months, and up to 14 days after the review period ends.(source 10)
More on preparing a confirmation statement.
Filing accounts with Companies House and HMRC
The accounts and the tax return have different deadlines, but you may be able to send them at the same time.(source 11) A private limited company that doesn't need an auditor may be able to file the two together.(source 12)
If the company is dormant
A dormant company still files its confirmation statement and annual accounts with Companies House.(source 13)
How standing.tax keeps them apart for you
- Your company's deadlines with HMRC and Companies House in one place, and what each one still needs from you.
- An email reminder 30 days and 7 days before your accounts, confirmation statement and Corporation Tax deadlines.
Each filing is its own task list on Home, with what it still needs from you, so you never have to remember which is which.
Questions people ask
Is the confirmation statement the same as the annual return?
It replaced the annual return. GOV.UK's pages still mention that, as this one does:
A dormant company still files its confirmation statement and annual accounts with Companies House.(source 13)
Can I change the company's directors on the confirmation statement?
Only some changes can be made in the statement itself: the SIC code, the share capital, the trading status of shares, the exemption from reporting people with significant control, and the shareholders. Other changes are reported separately.(source 14)
Where these rules come from
Each numbered sentence above is our plain-English version of GOV.UK’s own words, which are below with a link to the page they come from.
- 1.
“Your company's annual accounts - called 'statutory accounts' - are prepared from the company's financial records at the end of your company's financial year.”
GOV.UK: Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company - 2.
“Statutory accounts must include: a 'balance sheet', which shows the value of everything the company owns, owes and is owed on the last day of the financial year a 'profit and loss account', which shows the company's sales, running costs and the profit or loss it has made over the financial year notes about the accounts a director's report (unless you're a 'micro-entity')”
GOV.UK: Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company - 3.
“File annual accounts with Companies House 9 months after your company's financial year ends”
GOV.UK: Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies - 4.
“Your company or association must file a Company Tax Return if you get a 'notice to deliver a Company Tax Return' from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).”
GOV.UK: Company Tax Returns - 5.
“When you file your tax return, you work out your: profit or loss for Corporation Tax (this is different from the profit or loss shown in your annual accounts) Corporation Tax bill”
GOV.UK: Company Tax Returns - 6.
“The deadline for your tax return is 12 months after the end of the accounting period it covers.”
GOV.UK: Company Tax Returns - 7.
“You must still send statutory accounts to your members and to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as part of your Company Tax Return if you're a small company or micro-entity.”
GOV.UK: Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company - 8.
“You need to check that the information Companies House has about your company is correct every year. This is called a confirmation statement.”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 9.
“You need to check the following: the details of your registered office, directors, secretary and the address where you keep your records your statement of capital and shareholder information if your company has shares your SIC code (the number that identifies what your company does) your 'people with significant control'”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 10.
“You must review your records and file at least one confirmation statement every 12 months. You can file your statement up to 14 days after the review period has ended.”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities - 11.
“You have different deadlines for sending your accounts to Companies House and your tax return to HMRC, but you may be able send them at the same time.”
GOV.UK: Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company - 12.
“You may be able to file them together if you have a private limited company that does not need an auditor.”
GOV.UK: Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies - 13.
“You must file your confirmation statement (previously annual return) and annual accounts with Companies House even if your limited company is: dormant for Corporation Tax dormant according to Companies House”
GOV.UK: Dormant companies and associations - 14.
“You can only use your confirmation statement to report changes to your: SIC code statement of capital trading status of shares exemption from reporting your 'people with significant control' information to Companies House shareholder information You must tell Companies House about other changes to your limited company.”
GOV.UK: Running a limited company: your responsibilities
