Limited companies have several obligations to fulfil for both Companies House and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). As a director, you are legally responsible for maintaining these important company filing and reporting requirements, which include:
If your company is dormant (not trading) you must notify the Corporation Tax department within HMRC. In this instance, your company will not have any tax-related filing obligations to fulfil until it becomes active.
Companies have two statutory filing requirements for Companies House that they must carry out every year, regardless of whether they are trading or dormant. These are the annual accounts and the confirmation statement. They must also tell Companies House if there are any changes to their registered details.
Companies House will provide you with an accounting reference date (ARD) after incorporating your company. This represents the end of your company’s financial year, which is the date to which your annual accounts should be prepared.
The ARD will fall on the last day of the month of incorporation. For example, if you register your company on 1 March, your ARD will be 31 March the following year.
Accounts must be filed at Companies House within 9 months of your ARD. Full statutory accounts should include the following:
Small companies and micro-entities that qualify for audit exemption may file abridged (simpler) accounts instead. Abridged accounts need only contain a balance sheet and any notes required. You can include a simplified profit and loss account and a copy of the director’s report, but doing so is optional.
If your company is dormant, you must prepare dormant accounts for Companies House instead. These are very basic accounts containing a balance sheet with information on the company’s share capital. A company is classed as dormant by Companies House if it has no ‘significant’ transactions in the financial year.
A confirmation statement should be prepared for Companies House at least once every 12 months. The purpose of filing this document is to confirm to Companies House that the information they hold on your company is correct, including:
With the exception of shareholders’ details and SIC codes, you must tell Companies House about any changes to your company details as soon as possible. Changes to share capital, shareholders’ details, and SIC codes can be reported when you file the annual confirmation statement. All other changes must be reported separately.
Companies House will tell HMRC that your company has been incorporated. You will then receive a letter from HMRC to explain your company filing and reporting requirements.
Within 3 months of carrying on any kind of business activity, you must register your company’s trading status as ‘active’ for Corporation Tax purposes. You can do this online. HMRC will then inform you of your accounting period for Corporation Tax. It will begin on the date your business starts trading, and it will usually end on your company’s accounting reference date (ARD) .
If you are not planning to begin trading for a while after incorporation, you’ll need to tell HMRC that your company is dormant for Corporation Tax. By doing so, you won’t be expected to file a Company Tax Return until after you start trading.
If your company is active for Corporation Tax, you must file a Company Tax Return with HMRC each year. The deadline for delivering your tax return is 12 months after your accounting period ends. You must include full annual accounts with the tax return, even if your company qualifies as ‘small’.
Companies are required to pay between 19% and 25% Corporation Tax on all profits. The rate payable depends on how much profit your company makes in a year, which you will report in your Company Tax Return. The deadline for paying Corporation Tax is 9 months and 1 day after your accounting period ends.
You’ll need to register for VAT if your company’s total VAT- taxable turnover for the last 12 months is more than £90,000 (the VAT registration threshold) or if you expect turnover to exceed that threshold in the next 30 days.
You also have the option of registering voluntarily when turnover is below £90,000. Many businesses do so because there are several potential benefits to being VAT-registered.
If you register for VAT, you will be required to file a VAT Return with HMRC every three months (or annually, if you join the Annual Accounting Scheme). The filing and payment deadline is usually one month and seven days after the end of each accounting period.
If your company employs people or pays you a director’s salary, you’ll likely be required to register as an employer and enrol for PAYE . You’ll then be required to complete certain payroll tasks for HMRC, including reporting pay and deductions to HMRC each month in a Full Payment Submission (FPS).
The easiest and most secure way to deliver statutory information to Companies House is through WebFiling or Software Filing. These services enable the submission and acknowledgement of electronic data sent by companies and LLPs to Companies House. The Software Filing service operates by the electronic transmission of documents to Companies House via an HTTPS link using Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Rapid Formations provides access to electronic filing facilities through an Online Admin Portal . This service is available 24/7 to all clients. Non-clients can create a free account by providing their company number and authentication code and importing their company onto our system.
You can then upload and file documents electronically, deliver annual confirmation statements, access and update company details online, and report changes to Companies House quickly and securely.
Documents filed through our Online Admin Portal are formatted in accordance with Companies House requirements. You will sign these documents by providing your authentication code – this is the electronic equivalent of a unique pen-to-paper signature.
Any paper document uploaded and sent via software filing should be on A4 plain white paper. Your company registration number (CRN) and full company name should be placed in a prominent position on the document.
Paper documents should be on A4 plain white paper with a matt finish. The text should be black, clear, legible, and of uniform density. Letters and numbers should be clear and legible to enable Companies House to make an acceptable copy of the document.
Each year, approximately 6,000 sets of annual accounts delivered to Companies House are rejected due to inadequate legibility. Stick to the following guidelines to avoid rejection:
If you are delivering documents by post, courier, Document Exchange Service (DX), or Legal Post (in Scotland) and would like a receipt, Companies House will provide an acknowledgement if you enclose a copy of your covering letter with a stamped addressed envelope. Your copy letter will be barcoded with the date of receipt and returned to you in the envelope provided.
Statutory documents will not be accepted by Companies House if they are submitted by fax, email, or in PDF format (except electronically filed certified copies of charge instruments).
When you file documents electronically, Companies House will create an electronic image from the data you provide. Paper documents and forms are scanned to produce an electronic image. Original paper documents are stored, and electronic images are used as the working document and reproduced online for the public register.
Generally, the law requires that you deliver documents to Companies House in English. However, Welsh companies (those complying with section 88 of the Companies Act 2006) may draw up and deliver certain documents in Welsh without an accompanying certified translation in English.
In all other cases, you can deliver the following documents in languages other than English and Welsh if the document is accompanied by a certified translation into English:
Companies may also file voluntary certified translations of any document subject to the First Company Law Directive disclosure requirements. These are as follows:
Voluntary translations can only be filed in an official language of the European Union and must be accompanied by Form VT01, which will link the translation to the original document.
One of the best ways to keep on top of your company filing and reporting requirements is to sign up for Companies House eReminder service . It is completely free and will provide you with timely electronic reminders when your annual accounts and confirmation statement filing deadlines are approaching. Your company can select up to 4 email addresses to receive notifications through this service.
Companies House will send a second email to you confirming your registration for the eReminder Service. To double-check that you’re all set up, visit the company overview screen to make sure the eReminder option has a tick next to it.
Companies House eReminder service is a convenient alternative to postal reminders, which you are more likely to misplace. It is such an easy service to sign up for, and you can select up to four email addresses for receiving these reminders, so we highly recommend using it.
Running a limited comes with a great deal of responsibility, including the requirement to fulfil several filing and reporting obligations for Companies House and HMRC. Take some time to familiarise yourself with these to fully understand your duties as a director and company owner.
If you have any questions about this post, please leave a comment below. You can also find lots more helpful advice and guidance in the Rapid Formations Blog .