The short version
- Your confirmation statement is due twelve months and fourteen days after incorporation, then every year.
- First annual accounts are due twenty-one months after incorporation; later years are nine months after the year end.
- The corporation tax return is due twelve months after the accounting period ends — but the tax is payable before that.
- Late accounts penalties start at £150 and double if you were late the previous year too.
The confirmation statement (CS01)
The confirmation statement is not an accounts filing and it is not a tax return. It is an annual declaration that the information on your public record is still correct: registered office, directors, shareholders, share capital, people with significant control and your SIC activity code. If nothing has changed, you confirm that nothing has changed.
Your first one is due twelve months and fourteen days after incorporation. Incorporate on 18 September 2026 and your review date is 17 September 2027, with fourteen days to file. There is no financial penalty for lateness, which fools people into ignoring it — but a company that stops confirming is treated as dormant or abandoned and Companies House can begin striking it off the register. A struck-off company loses its bank account and its assets pass to the Crown.
Annual accounts
Your accounting reference date defaults to the last day of the month in which the company was incorporated, so a company formed on 18 September has a year end of 30 September. Your first accounts cover a slightly long first period and are due twenty-one months after incorporation. Every year after that, accounts are due nine months after the year end.
Small companies and dormant companies still have to file. Filing 'nothing happened' is a filing; filing nothing at all is a penalty.
| How late the accounts are | Penalty for a private company |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 month | £150 |
| 1 to 3 months | £375 |
| 3 to 6 months | £750 |
| More than 6 months | £1,500 |
The trap that doubles it
If your accounts were also late for the previous financial year, the penalty is doubled. Two consecutive late filings turn a £150 slip into £300, and a serious delay into £3,000.
Corporation tax: the return and the payment
These are two separate deadlines and mixing them up is expensive. The company tax return, the CT600, is due twelve months after the end of your accounting period. The tax itself is due earlier — nine months and one day after the period end — so for most small companies payment comes three months before the return.
- Register for corporation tax with HMRC within three months of starting to trade.
- File a return even for a loss-making year; the loss may be worth carrying forward.
- A return one day late costs £100, and another £100 at three months.
- Six months late and HMRC estimates your bill and adds 10%, then another 10% at twelve months.
- Interest runs on unpaid tax from the day after it was due.
The obligations people forget
- VAT — register once taxable turnover passes the threshold in any rolling twelve months, then file and pay quarterly. Overseas sellers holding stock in the UK often have to register from their first sale.
- PAYE — if the company pays anyone, including a director's salary, real-time submissions are due on or before each payday.
- Changes to the register — a new director, a change of registered office or a share transfer must be filed within its own deadline, not saved up for the confirmation statement.
- Company records — your register of members and PSCs must be kept and available, even if nobody ever asks.
How we stop this becoming your problem
The moment your company number and incorporation date exist, your dashboard calculates all three core dates and counts down to them. Nothing is typed in by hand, so nothing is a month out. Statutory post from Companies House and HMRC is scanned the day it arrives at your registered office, so a notice cannot sit unopened until it becomes a penalty.
Scale Compliance clients go a step further: we prepare and submit the confirmation statement, annual accounts and corporation tax return, and you approve them before anything is filed.
Common questions
When is my first confirmation statement due?
Twelve months and fourteen days after your incorporation date. Your dashboard shows the exact date with a countdown.
What is the penalty for filing accounts late?
For a private company: £150 up to one month late, £375 up to three months, £750 up to six months and £1,500 beyond that — doubled if the previous year was also late.
Do dormant companies still have to file?
Yes. A dormant company must still file dormant accounts and a confirmation statement every year.
Can I change my company's year end?
Yes, within limits, and it changes your accounts deadline. Talk to us before doing it — shortening a period can bring a deadline forward unexpectedly.
Keep reading
How to register a UK limited company: the honest step-by-step
What actually happens between the idea and the certificate of incorporation, written by the people who file it.
Registering a UK company when you do not live in the UK
No residency, no visa, no UK bank account required. Here is what you do need, and what nobody tells you.
Companies House identity verification and what an ACSP actually does
The biggest change to the UK register in decades, explained without the jargon.