Running a limited company comes with a recurring set of filings and records — none of them individually hard, but there are several, they're owed to two different bodies on different deadlines, and missing them carries real consequences, from automatic penalties to the company being struck off. The trouble is that no one hands you a single list. This is that list: what you have to file, who to, and when, with the deadlines that actually catch people out.
First, the split that clears up most confusion
Almost every mix-up comes from treating "company admin" as one thing. It's two. Companies House keeps the public record of your company — who runs it, who owns it, and a light set of accounts. HMRC deals with tax — corporation tax, VAT, payroll, and your own personal tax. They're separate organisations, with separate filings on separate deadlines, and filing one does nothing for the other. Keep that division in your head and the rest falls into place.
Your Companies House obligations
The confirmation statement. Once a year, you confirm that the details Companies House holds — directors, shareholders, registered office, people with significant control — are still correct. It's due within 14 days of your statement date (your incorporation anniversary, give or take), and every active company must file it even if nothing has changed. There's no automatic fine for missing it, but failing to file is a criminal offence that can end in strike-off — which is more serious than it sounds, and which we cover in detail in our guide to missing the confirmation statement deadline.
Annual accounts. You file a set of statutory accounts with Companies House each year, due nine months after your accounting reference date (the end of your financial year). Your very first accounts are an exception — they're due 21 months after incorporation. Unlike the confirmation statement, late accounts do trigger an automatic penalty, starting at £150 and climbing to £1,500 the later they are, and doubling if you're late two years running.
Keeping your registers current. Less visible but still required: your company's statutory registers — most importantly the register of members, which records who owns the shares. This is your own legal record, not something you file, but it has to be kept up to date as things change. If you ever transfer shares, updating the register is what actually completes it — see our guide to transferring shares and the J30 form, and if you're issuing new shares rather than transferring existing ones, see our guide to allotting new shares.
Your HMRC obligations
Corporation tax. This one has a trap built in. You must register for corporation tax within three months of starting to trade. Then each year there are two different deadlines that catch people out because they fall at different times: you must pay your corporation tax 9 months and 1 day after your accounting period ends, but you don't file your company tax return (the CT600) until 12 months after period end. Read that again — the payment is due before the return. Plenty of directors assume they pay when they file and end up with interest for paying late. Corporation tax is charged at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief between.
VAT — only if registered. If your turnover is over the VAT threshold (or you've registered voluntarily), you file VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, normally quarterly, due one month and seven days after the end of each VAT period, with payment on the same date. If you're not VAT-registered, this doesn't apply to you.
Payroll — only if you run one. If you pay yourself or anyone else a salary through PAYE, you report it to HMRC each time you run payroll, in real time. If you take a small salary plus dividends, the salary side is the part that goes through payroll.
Your personal self-assessment. This is the one directors forget is theirs, not the company's. If you take dividends or otherwise have untaxed income, you file a personal self-assessment tax return, due online by 31 January following the tax year, with any tax owed paid the same day. Taking dividends is usually what tips you into needing to file one — and the dividend tax is yours personally, not the company's, which we explain fully in how to pay yourself in dividends.
The records you keep but don't file
Some things aren't filed anywhere but still have to exist, because HMRC or anyone doing due diligence can ask to see them. The big ones for an owner-managed company are your dividend paperwork — a board minute or written resolution declaring each dividend, plus a voucher — and minutes of any significant company decisions. These aren't bureaucratic box-ticking: they're the evidence that a dividend was lawful, or that a decision was properly taken. We cover why they matter in board minutes as a sole director and what goes wrong without them in unlawful dividends.
What to actually do with this
The pattern that keeps you safe is simple, and it isn't about doing more work — it's about not being surprised. Know your specific dates: your confirmation statement date, your accounting reference date, and the corporation tax dates that follow from it. Don't rely on a single email reminder from Companies House or HMRC that's easy to miss, especially if you run more than one company. And keep the records — dividend vouchers, minutes, registers — as you go, not in a panic at year-end when they're far harder to reconstruct. Most of company admin is a handful of dates and a habit of recording things at the time. For what's changed at Companies House recently — new verification requirements, register changes, the paused accounts reforms — see our Companies House reform guide.
Common questions
- What does a limited company have to file every year?
- At minimum: a confirmation statement and annual accounts with Companies House, and a corporation tax return (CT600) with HMRC. Add VAT returns if registered, payroll reporting if you run one, and your own self-assessment if you take dividends.
- What's the difference between filing accounts and filing a tax return?
- Accounts go to Companies House nine months after your year-end and become part of the public record. The corporation tax return (CT600) goes to HMRC within twelve months and calculates the tax — though the tax itself is payable earlier, at nine months and one day. Two filings, two bodies, two deadlines.
- Do I have to file anything if my company didn't trade?
- Yes. A dormant company still files a confirmation statement and dormant accounts with Companies House every year, and may still need to deal with HMRC. Doing nothing leads to penalties and strike-off.
- Which deadline catches people out most?
- The corporation tax payment deadline, because it falls before the filing deadline. You pay at nine months and one day, but don't file the return until twelve months — so it's easy to assume you pay when you file, and pay late.