As a company director, it’s your responsibility to file your annual accounts. This includes when you make changes to the company, keeping a record of accounting records and filing confirmation statements.
Confirmation Statement
A confirmation statement is a yearly document that must be submitted to Companies House which contains accurate and up to date information about your limited company. This is then checked by Companies House against the public register to check and update any changes to the company details that you have already registered.
As a director, you can delegate this task, however, you, as a director will ultimately be held accountable and legally responsible. You can file as many confirmation statements as you like to make sure that when changes occur, Companies House is informed, and the register is updated.
The minimum requirement is 1 confirmation statement every 12 months and the deadline for filing this is within 28 days of the 1st years anniversary of your company being formed or within 28 days of the 1-year anniversary of your previous confirmation statement being submitted.
If you’re unsure about filing your confirmation statement we can help. Our team of experts will take care of the entire process for you! Click here to find out more.
Annual accounts
Also known as ‘statutory accounts’, these are created from your company’s financial records and are submitted at the end of your company’s financial year. You will need to send these accounts to all other shareholders, people who attend the company’s general meetings, Companies House, and HMRC as a part of your company tax return.
Your annual accounts, or statutory accounts, consist of the following:
- Your balance sheet – a statement that shows your company’s assets, liabilities, and equity. Basically, what your company owns, owes, and is owed.
- Your profit and loss account – a document that shows your company’s revenue and expenses over the last year.
- Any further details about the numbers shown in the above, also known as ‘notes’.
- A director’s report (unless your company is classed as a micro company). This report includes a list of people who have been a director at any point in the last year and the amount that they were paid in dividends, a summary of the company’s trading activities, the principal activities of the company, the financial events that are shown in the balance sheet and any changes to fixed assets.
Company tax returns
All limited companies must submit their Company tax returns to HMRC 12 months after the period company tax returns covers. If you don’t submit within the deadline, you can incur financial penalties which can be up to 20% of the tax amount due!
You will have to submit the following to HMRC when filing your company tax returns:
- Annual accounts – as discussed in the section above.
- CT600 – the filing used to pay corporation tax on your earnings.
- Corporation tax calculations – you’ll need to provide accurate workings and information.
We discuss corporation tax in more detail in part 5 of this blog series that you can access when we publish it next week.
Self Assessment (personal tax return)
As a director of a limited company, you have to submit a personal tax return of your personal income and allowances to HMRC. If all your income is paid and taxed through PAYE you won’t have to submit a Self Assessment.
As a limited company director, you will need to register for Self Assessment by using form SA1 online or via post. Once you’ve registered, you can submit your Self Assessment online by completing the SA100 form by 31st Jan every year.
If you don’t meet the deadline, you will receive a £100 penalty, even if you don’t have any tax to pay!
Whilst you can submit your own and your company tax returns yourself, we suggest that you hire a professional to complete this task correctly, due to its complexity and importance. Unless you’re completely confident that you have the capability to file it on your own.