Limited company accounts & filing — the complete UK hub

Running a limited company — even a one-person company with modest income — comes with fixed annual filing duties. Whatever your size, an active company must deliver:

• Annual (statutory) accounts to Companies House, normally due 9 months after your accounting year end
• A Company Tax Return (CT600) with full accounts and tax computations to HMRC, due 12 months after the end of the accounting period
• Corporation Tax payment, due 9 months and 1 day after the end of the accounting period
• A confirmation statement (CS01) to Companies House at least once every 12 months — even if the company is dormant

Miss a deadline and automatic penalties apply — Companies House late filing penalties start at £150 and rise to £1,500 for a private company, separate from HMRC penalties for a late tax return.

Our limited company guidance is written for the companies that make up the vast majority of the UK register: micro companies and small companies, single-director companies, owner-managed businesses, contractors and consultants trading through a limited company, freelancers, start-ups and dormant companies. If your company has a finance team and an audit requirement, you’re beyond the scope of these pages — for everyone else, this is written for you.

Start with your legal duties as a director →

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to sole traders and landlords, not to limited companies — but many directors also have rental or self-employed income, and VAT-registered companies already file VAT under MTD rules. See MTD for limited companies for how the two regimes fit together.