Setting up a limited company is very cheap and easy.
Getting it wrong can be expensive with HMRC and Companies House being able to impose heavy fines for the late filing of your accounts and tax returns.
Do you know when your year end is?
Many get confused about what the year end will be for their new limited company. Some think it is 5th April – the same as the tax year.
Others think it is 31 March.
And some guess at it being a year from the date that they set the company up – the formation date.
How to find out your year end
The way to find out the actual year end for your limited company is by looking it up on your company record at Companies House.
Do this by visiting the Companies House web site – click here
Enter the name of your company and when the list of names appears, click on your company.
You’ll arrive at the page of information that is stored about your company.
Your company record explained
You should be presented with a screen that shows:
Name of the company
Registered Office Address
This is the official address of a limited company.
Company Status: Active
The default is active unless other action has been taken e.g. dissolved. You may need to seek advice if the company is not showing as active.
Company Type: Private
Date of Incorporation: [Date]
The date that you set up the company.
Accounts
Next accounts made up to date: [Date]
This is the year end for the company (also known as the Accounting Reference Date). For all new companies, legislation sets the first accounting reference date as the last day in the month in which its first anniversary of incorporation falls.
For new companies the first deadline for filing the accounts will be 21 months from the date of incorporation e.g. if you incorporated (formed) your company on 21/03/2019 then the accounts for the first year end to 31/03/20 will be due on 21/12/2020.
Last accounts made up to: [Date]
Confirmation Statement
Next statement date [Date] due by [Date]
Last statement dated [Date}
The Confirmation Statement confirms that all the information held about the company (directors, shareholders, registered office, person with significant control etc) is up to date.
CLICK HERE to read more about the Confirmation Statement
Nature of Business (SIC):
XXXXX – description of SIC
This is the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities and describes the principal business activities of the company.
Other Tabs
You will see some other tabs of information for your company e.g. Filing History (which shows all the documents available for the public to view about your company) and People (showing the details of directors and secretary, if you have one).
HMRC and Companies House
HMRC and Companies House are completely separate organisations and do not use the same systems.
So when you set up your company, or if you change anything at Companies House, you must also tell HMRC about this as well – don’t expect Companies House to tell them.
Your first Corporation Tax Return CT600
And finally one further thing to bear in mind is that HMRC will accept a corporation tax return (a CT600) for a one year period only.
So for a company formed on 21/03/19 with a year end of 31/03/20, assuming that the company started to trade on the date that it formed, you will need to file:
- a set of accounts to 31/03/20 at Companies House
- a set of accounts to 31/03/20 at HMRC
- a CT600 corporation tax return from 21/03/19 to 20/03/20 at HMRC
- a CT600 corporation tax return from 21/03/20 to 31/03/20 at HMRC
- a Confirmation Statement at Companies House
- PAYE, VAT and self assessment returns as necessary