Annual Accounting Checklist for Limited Companies in the UK

Your four year-end deadlines

Source: GOV.UK, “Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies”.

Two points worth pausing on.

The Corporation Tax payment deadline is 9 months and 1 day, not 9 months. It falls one day after the Companies House accounts deadline for a company whose financial year and accounting period align. Directors who diary a single date for both obligations pay late.

The payment deadline also arrives three months before the filing deadline. You pay first and file afterwards. That ordering catches out first-year directors who assume the tax becomes due when the return is submitted.

Stage 1: Confirm your dates

Before anything else, establish four dates.

• Your accounting reference date. This is the last day of your company’s financial year. Companies House sets it on incorporation as the anniversary of the last day of the month you registered. You can check it on the public register.
• Your Companies House accounts deadline. Nine months after the accounting reference date, or 21 months from incorporation if these are your first accounts.
• Your accounting period for Corporation Tax. Normally the same 12 months as the financial year covered by your annual accounts, but not always. A period longer than 12 months splits into two accounting periods for Corporation Tax, each with its own payment and filing deadline.
• Your confirmation statement due date. This runs on a separate timetable and is covered at stage 7.

If your first set of accounts covers more than 12 months, expect two Corporation Tax accounting periods and two sets of deadlines. This is normal in year one and is a frequent source of unexpected penalty notices.

Stage 2: Gather your records

Work through the following before any accounts are drafted.

• Bank statements for every business account, covering the full financial year
• Credit card statements, and a note of any personal card used for business costs
• Sales invoices raised, including any raised but unpaid at the year end
• Purchase invoices and receipts, including anything paid personally by a director
• Loan and finance agreements, with the outstanding balance at the year end
• Payroll records, including RTI submissions and pension contributions
• VAT returns filed during the year, and the VAT position at the year end
• Stock valuation at the year end, if your company holds stock
• Fixed asset purchases and disposals during the year
• Director’s loan account movements, including anything drawn and repaid
• Dividend vouchers and the board minutes supporting each declaration

Reconcile the bank first. Every transaction in the accounting records should agree to a statement line. Unreconciled items are the most common cause of a year-end process stalling.

Stage 3: Understand what statutory accounts contain

GOV.UK sets out that statutory accounts must include a balance sheet, a profit and loss account, notes about the accounts, and a director’s report unless the company is a micro-entity. An auditor’s report may also be required depending on company size.

The balance sheet must carry the name of a director in print and must be signed by a director.

Statutory accounts must meet either International Financial Reporting Standards or New UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Copies of the statutory accounts must always go to shareholders, to anyone entitled to attend general meetings, to Companies House, and to HMRC as part of the Company Tax Return.

Note the distinction. What a company prepares and what it files at Companies House are not always the same. A micro-entity prepares full statutory accounts for its members and HMRC, but may file a reduced version on the public register.

Stage 4: Work out your company size

Size determines your filing options and your audit position. Get this wrong and you prepare on the wrong basis.

Both tests work the same way. A company qualifies if it meets any two of the three conditions. It does not need to meet all three.

Small company

Your company will be small if it has any 2 of the following:

• a turnover of £15 million or less
• £7.5 million or less on its balance sheet
• 50 employees or less

A small company can use the audit exemption, can choose whether to send the director’s report and profit and loss account to Companies House, and can send abridged accounts.

Micro-entity

Your company will be a micro-entity if it has any 2 of the following:

• a turnover of £1 million or less
• £500,000 or less on its balance sheet
• 10 employees or less

A micro-entity can prepare simpler accounts that meet statutory minimum requirements, send only its balance sheet with less information to Companies House, and use the same exemptions available to small companies.

Source: GOV.UK, “Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company”.

Abridged accounts are not the same as micro-entity accounts

These two things are routinely confused, including in published guidance.

Abridged accounts are a small company option. They contain a simpler balance sheet along with any notes, and optionally a simpler profit and loss account and director’s report. Critically, you can only send abridged accounts if all your company members agree to it. That consent requirement is frequently overlooked.

Micro-entity accounts are a separate regime. A micro-entity is not required to prepare a director’s report at all, and files a reduced balance sheet.

If you have been told your micro-entity company “files abridged accounts”, the terminology is wrong, and it is worth checking whether the underlying preparation is correct.

Stage 5: File with Companies House

• Confirm the deadline: 9 months after your financial year end, or 21 months from incorporation for first accounts
• Confirm your filing option based on size, and obtain member consent if abridged accounts are used
• Check that a director’s name is printed on the balance sheet and that a director has signed it
• File through the appropriate Companies House route before the deadline

If you need longer, you can apply to extend your accounts filing deadline. Apply before the deadline passes. An extension granted after the event does not remove a penalty already incurred.

Late filing penalties

The penalty is doubled if your accounts are late two years in a row. Penalties are issued automatically, without a warning. A company that fails to file can be fined and struck off the register.

Source: GOV.UK, “Prepare annual accounts for a private limited company: Penalties for late filing”.

Note that these penalties come from Companies House, not HMRC. HMRC operates a separate penalty regime, covered at stage 6. It is possible to incur both for the same financial year.

Stage 6: File and pay with HMRC

• Pay Corporation Tax, or tell HMRC the company owes none, 9 months and 1 day after the accounting period ends
• File the Company Tax Return within 12 months of the accounting period ending
• File even if the company made a loss or owes no tax

Companies with larger taxable profits pay Corporation Tax in instalments rather than as a single payment. If your profits are approaching that level, check the instalment rules before assuming the standard deadline applies.

Late filing penalties for the Company Tax Return

If your tax return is late three times in a row, the £200 penalties increase to £1,000 each.

If the return is six months late, HMRC issues a tax determination, which is its own estimate of the Corporation Tax due. You cannot appeal against a determination. You must pay the tax and file the outstanding return, after which HMRC recalculates the interest and penalties.

Source: GOV.UK, “Company Tax Returns: Penalties for late filing”, last updated 2 September 2026.

Late payment is a separate matter from late filing. HMRC charges interest on tax paid after the payment deadline, regardless of when the return is submitted. A company can incur late payment interest and late filing penalties for the same period.

Stage 7: Confirmation statement and identity verification

The confirmation statement is a separate filing from your accounts, on a separate timetable, and it is the one most often forgotten.

• Every company, including dormant and non-trading companies, must file a confirmation statement at least once every year
• The review period ends 12 months after either the date of incorporation, for a first statement, or the confirmation statement date on the last one filed
• You can file up to 14 days after the review period has ended
• The fee is £50 online, or £110 for a paper form CS01 by post

You must file even if nothing has changed during the review period. You can be fined up to £5,000 and your company may be struck off if you do not file.

Identity verification now blocks the filing

This is the change most likely to disrupt a year-end process this year.

Before filing the confirmation statement, all company directors must verify their identity. On the next statement you must provide a Companies House personal code for each director and tick a statement confirming each director has verified. Companies House will not accept the confirmation statement until all directors have verified their identity.

People with significant control must also verify and provide a personal code, with the timing depending on the circumstances.

The practical consequence is that identity verification is no longer a background administrative task. An unverified director now stops a statutory filing. Check verification status well before the 14-day window opens, not inside it.

Source: GOV.UK, “Filing your company’s confirmation statement”, last updated 21 April 2026.

What changes in April 2028

On 9 June 2026 the government confirmed a package of accounts filing reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. The package was originally set for April 2027 and has been moved to April 2028.

The confirmed changes are:

• Small companies and micro-entities must file profit and loss accounts with Companies House, as other companies do, with the option to opt out of publishing that information on the public register
• All companies must file annual accounts using commercial software, in Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language format. This applies whether a company files its own accounts or uses an agent or accountant
• The web and paper-based filing systems close for accounts filings. Companies House web filing remains available for non-accounts filings, including confirmation statements and director updates
• The option to file abridged accounts is removed
• A strengthened eligibility statement is required for any company claiming audit exemption
• All component parts of the filed accounts and reports must be filed together
• The number of times a company can shorten its accounting reference period is reduced

Where a company opts out of publishing its profit and loss account, Companies House, law enforcement and HMRC retain access.

Source: GOV.UK, “Companies House to bring in changes to accounts filing from April 2028”, published 9 June 2026.

What this means in practice

Three consequences are worth planning for now.

If you currently self-file through the free Companies House web service, that route ends. Companies that are not ready to file through compatible software risk having accounts rejected, which can turn into a late filing default with the penalties at stage 5 attached.

The privacy position for small companies changes in substance, not just in form. Today, filleted and abridged accounts keep turnover and profit off the public record by default. From April 2028 the profit and loss account must be filed, and privacy depends on actively using an opt-out. The mechanics of that opt-out have not yet been published by Companies House. Until they are, no adviser can tell you with certainty what the process will require.

The timing is triggered by the filing date, not the year end. Accounts for an earlier accounting period filed on or after the commencement date are expected to fall under the new requirements. Companies with a habit of filing close to the deadline should treat the change as arriving sooner than the year-end date alone suggests.

This point on the filing-date trigger reflects our reading of the announced package and professional commentary. Companies House has not yet published detailed commencement guidance. Confirm the position before relying on it.

Five mistakes we see most often

1. Diarising 9 months for both deadlines. The Companies House accounts deadline and the Corporation Tax payment deadline are one day apart, not the same day. Set two reminders.
2. Assuming the accounting period matches the financial year. In a first year it frequently does not. A period over 12 months splits in two for Corporation Tax, producing two payment dates and two returns.
3. Treating a nil liability as nothing to do. A Company Tax Return is required even where the company made a loss or owes no tax. The fixed penalties at stage 6 apply regardless of the liability.
4. Applying the size test as though all three conditions must be met. Both the small and micro-entity tests require any two of three. Companies routinely exclude themselves from a regime they qualify for.
5. Leaving director identity verification until the confirmation statement is due. The statement will not be accepted until every director has verified. Fourteen days is not long enough to resolve a verification problem.

Documents to have ready before filing

• Balance sheet, with a director’s name printed and a director’s signature
• Profit and loss account
• Notes to the accounts
• Director’s report, unless the company is a micro-entity
• Auditor’s report, if the company is not exempt from audit
• Reconciled bank and credit card records supporting the figures
• Company Tax Return, with the accounts attached
• Confirmation statement, with identity verification completed for all directors