At the end of its accounting period, your limited company must prepare full annual accounts. The following actions must be taken:

File annual accounts with Companies House Due 9 months after your company’s accounting period ends
Pay Corporation Tax Due 9 months and 1 day after your company’s accounting period ends (except in accounting periods greater than 12 months, see Corporation Tax Return section below)
File a Company Tax Return Due 12 months after your company’s accounting period ends

 

Depending on the size of your company, you have different filing requirements

Your company will be ‘small’ if it meets two of the following conditions:

  • Turnover of £6.5 million or less
  • £3.26 million or less on its balance sheet
  • 50 employees or less

If your company is small, you can send shorter, abbreviated, accounts to Companies House. An abbreviated account is the balance sheet from your company’s statutory accounts, along with any notes. Sending an abbreviated account means less information about your company will be publicly available.

If your company is small, you can also:

  • Use the exemption so your company’s accounts don’t need to be audited
  • Choose whether to send a copy of the director’s report or not

 

Corporation Tax Return

You must send a Company Tax Return to report your company’s Corporation Tax to HMRC. You must do this even if you have nothing to pay.

A corporation tax period cannot be longer than 12 months, if your accounting period is longer than 12 months, a corporation tax return will be due for the first 12 months and a second return due for the remaining period. Each tax return must be filed by nine months and one day after the end of the period the tax return covers.

 

Dormant companies

Your company is called ‘dormant’ by Companies House if it’s had no ‘significant’ transactions in the accounting period that you’d normally report. Significant transactions don’t include:

  • Filing fees paid to Companies House
  • Penalties for late filing of accounts
  • Money paid for shares when the company was incorporated

If a company has been dormant since incorporation, you will only need to file the form AA02 with Companies House. All other dormant companies must still file abbreviated accounts.

 

If you made a loss

You can either claim the loss:

  • Against your previous year’s profit (‘carry it back’) – you may get a repayment of Corporation Tax if you do this
  • In future accounting periods (‘carry it forward’)

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