Companies House Filing Requirements: A Director’s Calendar

A limited company director answers to 2 regulators on a rolling calendar: Companies House for the register and accounts, HMRC for tax and payroll. The deadlines anchor to 4 different dates: year end, incorporation anniversary, tax year and payday. They land in different months and are easy to miss.

This guide assembles the Companies House filing requirements and the HMRC deadlines into a complete calendar for directors: what each filing is, when it is due, and what missing it costs. Every figure below comes from GOV.UK guidance verified in August 2026.

One duty frames every deadline. Annual accounts must reach Companies House in correct form by the filing date; the posting date counts for nothing, and directors remain personally responsible for delivery. GOV.UK states the duty in those terms, so the calendar below is a director’s own risk list, not an adviser’s paperwork.

What Filings Does a Limited Company Owe Each Year?

A limited company owes 2 filings to Companies House and 5 to HMRC each year, plus event-driven filings whenever company details change.

The Companies House side covers the register:

• Annual accounts: the trading record for the financial year
• Confirmation statement: the annual check of registered details

The HMRC side covers tax and employment:

• Corporation Tax payment
• Company Tax Return (CT600)
• VAT returns, where the company is registered
• PAYE reports, where the company employs staff
• Annual payroll tasks: the final FPS, P60s and P11Ds

Event-driven filings carry no annual date: a registered office move, a director or PSC change, a share allotment, a registered charge. Each one starts its own reporting clock the moment the event happens, which is why a fixed annual checklist alone never covers the full obligation set.

What Are the Companies House Deadlines?

Companies House sets 2 annual deadlines for a private limited company: accounts 9 months after the financial year end, and a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months.

Annual accounts for a private company are due 9 months after the end of the financial year. First accounts covering more than 12 months get 21 months from incorporation, or 3 months after the accounting reference date, whichever is longer. The clock stops only when accounts reach Companies House in acceptable form; postage proves nothing.

The confirmation statement works on a review period, not a fixed date. The first review period starts at incorporation; each later one starts on the statement date of the previous filing. The statement is filed inside the review period, with a 14-day window after the period closes. The fee is £50 online or £110 on paper, charged once per 12-month payment period. Filing early is allowed and resets the 12-month clock.

Event-driven filings sit outside the annual rhythm but carry real deadlines. A change of registered office, a director or PSC appointment or resignation filed with ID-verified personal codes, an allotment of shares and a registered charge each have their own reporting window. Register-side work without a calendar rhythm is the part most often delegated; a Company Secretarial service tracks the register continuously so nothing waits on memory.

Dormant companies keep a lighter but real load: dormant accounts and the confirmation statement still fall due every year.

The penalties for missing the register-side deadlines are banded and personal. Late accounts cost £150, £375, £750 or £1,500 by lateness band, and the penalty doubles for a company late 2 years running. Non-filing of the confirmation statement risks a fine of up to £5,000 plus strike-off from the register, and persistent non-filing is a criminal offence. One regime now gates all of it: directors and PSCs must verify identity once, free of charge, through a GOV.UK One Login or via an authorised agent. Unverified officers cannot file, so verification is a precondition to every submission above.

What Are the HMRC Deadlines?

HMRC sets 5 deadline families: Corporation Tax payment, the CT600 return, VAT, PAYE reporting and annual payroll tasks.

Corporation Tax is payable 9 months and 1 day after the accounting period ends, for companies with taxable profits up to £1.5m. Larger profits pay by quarterly instalments instead. A company with nothing owed must still tell HMRC, or the non-filing penalties start anyway.

The Company Tax Return (CT600) is due 12 months after the accounting period ends and is filed online through software. Filing late costs £200 from day 1, another £200 at 3 months, then 10% of unpaid tax at 6 and 12 months, with a £1,000 escalation for companies late 3 years running.

VAT returns and payment are due 1 calendar month and 7 days after the VAT period ends. The deadline counts weekends, and payment must clear by that date, not merely be sent.

PAYE runs on the shortest cycle of all. Each payday is reported on or before the day itself through an FPS submission. Electronic payment reaches HMRC by the 22nd of the following tax month, or the 22nd after quarter end for quarterly payers; cheque payers must pay by the 19th. The annual payroll layer sits on top: the final FPS goes in on or before the last payday of the tax year, P60s reach employees by 31 May, P11D forms for expenses and benefits by 6 July, and payroll software updates apply from 6 April. A cycle that repeats up to 12 times a year is the reason employers hand it to a Payroll Services provider instead of diarying it by hand.

What Does the Calendar Look Like in Practice?

Take a company incorporated on 1 June 2024 with a 31 May year end. The compliance year runs:

• 28 February: annual accounts due at Companies House, 9 months after year end
• 1 March: Corporation Tax payable, 9 months and 1 day after year end
• 31 May: year end; the CT600 for the period just closed falls due 12 months later, on the next 31 May
• 1 June: the confirmation statement review period opens on the incorporation anniversary, with the 14-day filing window after it closes

VAT quarters and the monthly 22nd PAYE payment run alongside those fixed points. Preparing Company Accounts early is the one lever a director controls directly, because the accounts deadline lands a single day before the tax payment.

How Do You Build a Filing Calendar That Works?

Anchor everything to 2 dates: the year end and the incorporation date. Those 2 anchors generate the accounts deadline, the Corporation Tax payment, the CT600 and the confirmation statement. Layer the tax-year items on top, the 6 April software changes and the final FPS, then the running cycles of VAT periods and paydays.

Use the free Companies House email reminders, which cover up to 4 people, and the alerts inside the HMRC online account. The public register shows a company’s confirmation statement date at any time. Run one shared calendar for the whole compliance year rather than separate reminders per filing; a single view is what surfaces clashes, such as an accounts deadline landing one day before a tax payment.

Two changes are scheduled under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. From 1 April 2028, accounts are filed through software only, and small and micro companies file a profit and loss account. A calendar built today should assume software filing throughout.

The table below summarises the whole compliance year: each recurring filing, its deadline and the cost of missing it.

Filing	Deadline	Cost of missing it
Annual accounts	9 months after year end	£150 to £1,500, doubled for repeat years
First accounts (12+ months)	21 months from incorporation	Same penalty bands
Confirmation statement	Every 12 months, plus 14-day window	Fine up to £5,000, strike-off risk
Corporation Tax payment	9 months and 1 day after period	Interest on unpaid tax
CT600 return	12 months after period end	£200 from day 1, plus further bands
VAT return and payment	1 month and 7 days after period	Interest and penalties
FPS per payday	On or before the payday	Penalties scale with lateness
PAYE payment	22nd of next tax month, 19th by cheque	Interest and penalties
P60 and P11D	31 May and 6 July	Penalties apply

Five of the nine rows follow from the 2 anchor dates alone; the VAT and payroll rows run on their own clocks.

Common Questions Answered

Which filings can be done early?

Confirmation statements and accounts can be filed early; the tax deadlines cannot move. A confirmation statement filed any time inside the review period resets the 12-month clock, and accounts can go in as soon as they are finalised after year end. Corporation Tax is due 9 months and 1 day after the period and that date is fixed. A VAT return can be submitted early, but the payment must still clear by the 1 month and 7 day mark.

What happens if a filing is late?

Each late filing triggers its own penalty regime, and the regimes stack. Late accounts attract banded penalties from £150 to £1,500, doubled for 2 successive late years. A missing confirmation statement risks a fine up to £5,000 and strike-off. A late CT600 costs £200 from day 1 with further bands. Late PAYE and VAT reporting draw interest plus penalties that scale with lateness and the size of the liability.

Do dormant companies have a lighter calendar?

A dormant company keeps a lighter calendar, never an empty one: dormant accounts and the confirmation statement still fall due each year, and directors must still verify identity. The VAT and PAYE obligations fall away only once the company deregisters for VAT or closes its PAYE scheme.

Is there one deadline date for everything?

No. Accounts follow the year end, the confirmation statement follows the incorporation or statement anniversary, VAT follows its own periods, and PAYE follows paydays and the 22nd. Two anchor dates, the year end and the incorporation date, generate almost the whole calendar; the rest runs on tax-year and payment cycles.

How Aqua Accounting Can Help

Aqua Accounting runs the full compliance calendar for Newcastle companies: accounts, confirmation statements, Corporation Tax, VAT and payroll, on one fixed fee. The Companies House filing requirements and the HMRC cycle share one diary, so one team watches both regulators and no deadline splits across providers.

Register-side filings, company accounts preparation and the monthly payroll cycle each sit with a dedicated service, and the fixed fee covers the whole year of deadlines rather than each filing as it lands. Where the calendar above looks heavy for a director running a company alone, handing it over is the usual next step.

Book a review and the calendar gets built around your 2 anchor dates: your year end and your incorporation date.

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this blog is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, Aqua Accounting accepts no responsibility for any actions taken based on this content. You should seek professional advice tailored to your individual circumstances.