Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies

Overview

After the end of its financial year, your private limited company must prepare:

full (‘statutory’) annual accounts
a Company Tax Return

You need your accounts and tax return to meet deadlines for filing with Companies House and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

You can also use them to work out how much Corporation Tax to pay.

Action	Deadline
File first year accounts with Companies House	21 months after the date you registered with Companies House
File annual accounts with Companies House	9 months after your company’s financial year ends
Pay Corporation Tax or tell HMRC that your limited company doesn’t owe any	9 months and 1 day after your ‘accounting period’ for Corporation Tax ends
File a Company Tax Return	12 months after your accounting period for Corporation Tax ends

Your accounting period for Corporation Tax is the time covered by your Company Tax Return. It’s normally the same 12 months as the company financial year covered by your annual accounts.

Filing your accounts and tax return

You can file with Companies House and HMRC together or separately.

You must take additional steps:

at the end of your company’s first year
if you restart a dormant company

There are penalties for filing late with Companies House and HMRC.

Get more time to file your accounts

Companies House may extend your accounts deadline if both:

an event you couldn’t control stops you from sending your accounts
you apply for more time before the filing deadline

Email or write to Companies House, explaining what’s happened and how much more time you’ll need to file your accounts.

Companies House
enquiries@companies-house.gov.uk

Companies House
Crown Way
Cardiff
CF14 3UZ

Filing accounts and tax returns

You file your accounts with Companies House and your Company Tax Return with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

You may be able to file them together if you have a private limited company that doesn’t need an auditor.

What you want to do	How you can do it
File accounts and tax return together	Use HMRC’s online service or accounting software
File accounts with Companies House separately	Send your accounts to Companies House online
File tax return with HMRC separately	Use HMRC’s online service or accounting software

You’ll need your:

HMRC online account details
company registration number
Companies House online account details

Corrections and amendments

Check what you must do to correct or amend your:

Using accountants or tax advisers to file for you

You can:

give your accountant or tax adviser your Companies House authentication code so they can file your accounts
appoint an agent to file your Company Tax Return

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