What are the filing requirements of a limited company?

When you register a company in the UK, you are legally required to report certain information to Companies House and HMRC on a regular basis. This includes income and expenditure, assets and liabilities, and key details about the company and the people who control it.

Below, we outline the most important statutory filing requirements of a limited company to help you understand these obligations.

1. Limited company filing requirements for Companies House

Confirmation statement

You must prepare a confirmation statement for Companies House at least once yearly, even if your company is dormant. This document, which replaced the annual return in 2016, confirms general information about a company on a specific date, ensuring that the details shown on the public record are correct and up to date.

What information do I need to check and confirm on a confirmation statement?

The company details you must check and confirm on the statement are as follows:

• Company name and registration number 
• Registered office address 
• Single Alternative Inspection Location (SAIL) address 
• Location of company records 
• Details of appointed officers (directors and company secretary) 
• Information about PSCs (people with significant control)
• Principal business activities (SIC codes) 
• Statement of capital (i.e. issued shares) 
• Trading status of shares 
• Shareholder information 
• Exemption from keeping a register of people with significant control 
• The company’s registered email address

Completing and filing your confirmation statement

If all of these details (where applicable) are correct and up to date on the public register, you simply need to confirm this by completing and filing form CS01. To do so, you must provide the following information:

• Company number 
• Full company name (including ‘Limited’ or ‘LTD’) 
• Statement date 
• Director’s or company secretary’s signature 

The completed confirmation statement can be sent to Companies House online or by post. Online submission costs £34, while a postal submission costs £62.

If you need to update your Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, statement of capital, shareholder information, or the trading status of shares, you’ll need to do this in parts 1 to 4 of the confirmation statement itself.

However, if you need to report changes to any other details, you must update the information on separate forms before or at the same time as filing your confirmation statement.

Need help with filing your confirmation statement? At 1st Formations, we offer a Confirmation Statement Service from £59.99 (plus VAT). Simply let our team know which company information you want to update, and they’ll complete and submit the CS01 form for you.

Confirmation statement filing deadline

You need to file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months. This 12-month period is known as your ‘review period’, and it begins on either:

• The date on which your company was incorporated, or
• The statement date stated on your last confirmation statement

You must deliver your confirmation statement to Companies House no later than 14 days after the end of your review period.

Limited company accounts

The filing requirements of a limited company include preparing annual accounts for Companies House every year. This applies to dormant companies as well.

The purpose of accounts is to report your company’s financial activity at the end of its financial year. The type of accounts you need to prepare and file will depend on your company’s size or trading status:

• Larger companies—full statutory accounts 
• Small companies—small company accounts (i.e. simplified, abridged accounts) 
• Micro entities—micro-entity accounts, which are even more straightforward than small company accounts 
• Dormant companies—dormant accounts, which are also very basic 

The deadline for sending accounts to Companies House is 9 months after your company’s financial year ends. However, your first set of accounts is 21 months after the incorporation date.

2. Limited company filing requirements for HMRC

When your company starts trading, it becomes active for Corporation Tax. This means you must register for Corporation Tax online, prepare and file Company Tax Returns and statutory accounts for HMRC, and pay Corporation Tax on all taxable profit.

Register for Corporation Tax

You should register your company for Corporation Tax registration within 3 months of the date you start trading. This might be the date of incorporation if you start trading straight away, or it may be later if your company is dormant.

You will need to register for Corporation Tax online and provide the following information to HMRC:

• Company registration number 
• The date you started trading 
• The date that your annual accounts are made up to 

To register, you will need your company’s 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), which HMRC will post to your registered office within 14 days of incorporation.

You will need your UTR to create a Government Gateway account online, complete your registration, send Company Tax Returns and annual accounts to HMRC, and pay your Corporation Tax bills.

Prepare company tax returns and annual accounts

Limited companies must also prepare Company Tax Returns (CT600) and full statutory accounts for HRMC if they are registered for Corporation Tax. However, these are not required if your company is dormant (inactive) for Corporation Tax purposes.

• Would you like a company secretary for your business – but think you can’t afford it?
• What records do limited companies need to keep?
• Late filing penalties for limited companies

Company Tax Returns and annual accounts must be delivered to HMRC no later than 12 months after your company’s accounting period ends. Corporation Tax bills must be paid no later than 9 months and one day after the end of the accounting period.

VAT, PAYE, and Self Assessment

Companies must register for VAT, file VAT returns, and pay VAT if their annual taxable income exceeds £90,000. Voluntary VAT registration is also available if your company’s turnover is below the registration threshold. 

PAYE registration will also be necessary if your company has employees, including directors, who receive salaries through payroll.

Directors and shareholders must also register for Self Assessment and prepare tax returns for untaxed personal income they receive, such as dividends from shares, expenses, and directors’ loans.

3. Company changes that must be reported to Companies House and HMRC

The filing requirements of a limited company include notifying Companies House and/or HMRC about any changes. The company changes you need to report include the following:

• Change of company name 
• Change of registered office address 
• Adding or changing a SAIL address 
• The location of statutory company records and registers 
• Adding or removing a director or company secretary 
• Changing the details of a director, secretary, or shareholder 
• Changes to the PSC register 
• Issuing or transferring shares 
• Altering the articles of association 
• Changes to your company’s share capital 
• Changing your company’s SIC codes 
• Changing the Accounting Reference Date (ARD) 
• Reporting your company as dormant 
• Changing your company’s trading status from dormant to active 
• Changing the accounting period for Corporation Tax 
• Appointing an accountant or tax advisor 
• VAT and payroll details 
• Self Assessment details 

The following changes must be reported to Companies House within 14 days:

• Changes to addresses (including registered office and location of statutory records and registers) 
• Adding or removing a director or secretary 
• Changing the registered details of existing directors and secretaries 

If your company increases its share capital by issuing more shares, you must deliver a ‘Return of Allotment of Shares’ to Companies House within 1 month. You can file some changes for free via the 1st Formations Online Company Manager, such as changing your company’s accounting period, and purchase additional services to file several others.

Recording changes in your company’s statutory records and registers

The Companies Act 2006 requires all limited companies to maintain several statutory records and registers at their registered office address.

Any changes to company details must be updated in the appropriate record or registers immediately, as the government and public can request to inspect them at any time.

Who is legally responsible for the filing requirements of a limited company?

Directors are ultimately responsible for managing the filing requirements of a limited company, even if any of these duties are delegated to a company secretary or accountant.

Failure to maintain these requirements can lead to serious consequences, such as financial penalties, director disqualification, company dissolution, and prosecution.

4. Recent changes to compliance rules for limited companies

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA)

The government recently introduced legislative changes under The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), affecting directors and company filing requirements. One of the major reforms has given Companies House greater authority over register maintenance and measuring compliance.

As a result, companies and directors who demonstrate a pattern of non-compliance could face much stricter penalties than pre-ECCTA, including fines of up to £10,000 and director disqualification. In serious cases, Companies House may even strike non-compliant companies off the register.

There is generally nothing to worry about if you’ve missed one filing deadline or made a minor mistake in your documents. Companies House will seek to support your organisation rather than issuing a penalty as long as you actively demonstrate your willingness to rectify those rare errors and take all the necessary steps to ensure your company has a complete filing history. 

They generally will apply penalties to companies that are regularly non-compliant. That said, it’s crucial that directors keep on top of their filing obligations, stick to deadlines, and ensure that all documents are filed correctly.

Other upcoming changes to be aware of

As ECCTA continues to roll out new laws, the next changes for companies and directors to be mindful of concern ID verification. There is no set date yet, but by autumn 2025, Companies House will start transitioning to asking all existing directors and PSCs to verify their identity as part of the annual confirmation statement filing.

The transition is expected to take 12 months. Companies House aims to make ID verification compulsory by the end of 2026.

These requirements will also apply to Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs), third-party agents who may submit filings on a company’s behalf.

5. Dormant company filing and reporting requirements

Every UK company needs to file annual accounts to Companies House–even dormant companies. That said, dormant companies have fewer filing and reporting requirements than active companies. These are:

• Confirmation statements must be filed at Companies House at least once every 12 months 
• Dormant company accounts must be prepared and submitted to Companies House every year 
• Changes to registered details must be reported to Companies House (and HMRC, in some cases) as and when they occur 
• If your company is dormant, you must tell HMRC as soon as possible

We can help you with dormant company accounts here at 1st Formations. For £49.99 plus VAT, our expert team will file your dormant accounts and inform you by email when Companies House accepts them. We also offer an Express Service if you need your filings completed within 24 hours.

6. Need help with your limited company filings?

Here are a few practical tips to help you stay up–to–date with your filing requirements:

Access your 1st Formations accounts

1st Formations Online Company Manager is a free software filing facility that allows you to access your registered details online, report changes, and file annual confirmation statements at Companies House quickly and securely at any time.

Existing clients are automatically registered for this service. Non-clients can sign up for our free service by creating an account online and importing their company details onto our system.

Add recurring filing deadlines to your calendar

While there are quite a few deadlines to remember, the great thing is that they will be the same every year. A simple but effective way to stay on top of them is to add them to your calendar as recurring events.

Also, set reminders so that you receive advance notifications, which will let you know that a filing deadline is approaching and give you plenty of time to prepare.

Use our Full Company Secretary Service

The 1st Formations Full Company Secretary Service is designed to give you peace of mind that your statutory filings are completed accurately and on time–all year long. The service is available to existing and non-customers.

For an annual fee of £149.99 (plus VAT) we’ll file up to 15 company changes per year, submit your confirmation statement, and prepare and maintain your company registers. We can also file dormant company accounts if your company is dormant with Companies House.

There you have it

Every UK-registered company (whether it’s active or dormant) has certain filing and reporting requirements with Companies House and HMRC. We hope this article has helped you understand all these different obligations and how to stay on top of them. Remember to reach out to our Customer Support team on 020 3897 2233 if you need help with any of these services.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, don’t forget to take a look at the 1st Formations blog for more useful articles on company filings, compliance, and more.