Annual compliance obligations
Running a limited company means meeting strict filing deadlines with both Companies House and HMRC. Missing deadlines results in automatic penalties - plan ahead and set calendar reminders for your key dates.
File annual accounts (opens in a new tab)
Companies House deadline is 9 months after your financial year end.
File confirmation statement (opens in a new tab)
Annual confirmation of company details - must be filed every 12 months.
Corporation Tax
Limited companies pay Corporation Tax on their profits. You must file a CT600 return within 12 months of your accounting period end, but pay any tax due within 9 months. Late payment triggers interest charges; late filing triggers penalties.
File Corporation Tax return
HMRC deadline is 12 months after your accounting period ends.
Payroll and director payments
If you pay yourself a salary (rather than dividends alone) or employ staff, you must operate PAYE and report to HMRC in real time. This applies even if you're a director-only company paying yourself above the NI threshold.
Pay directors and employees
Operate PAYE, file RTI submissions, and meet payroll deadlines.
Company records and governance
Directors are legally responsible for maintaining proper company records, including statutory registers, minutes of meetings, and accounting records. Keep accounting records for at least 6 years and minutes of meetings for at least 10 years, and make the registers available for inspection.
Maintain statutory registers (opens in a new tab)
Companies must keep registers of directors, shareholders, and PSCs.
Report changes to Companies House (opens in a new tab)
Notify Companies House of changes to directors or people with significant control within 14 days, and of new share issues within a month.
Understand your director duties (opens in a new tab)
Directors have ongoing legal obligations to the company.
Keep proper accounting records (opens in a new tab)
Companies must keep accounting records for at least 6 years.
VAT and dividends
If your taxable turnover exceeds £90,000, you must register for VAT. Directors can also extract profits as dividends - which are taxed more favourably than salary - but dividends can only be paid from distributable profits.
Check if you need to register for VAT
You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes the registration threshold in any rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to pass the threshold within the next 30 days alone.
Consider dividend payments (opens in a new tab)
Directors can take profits as dividends - understand the rules and tax treatment.