We recently did a blog about what a limited company is (it’s here!), we thought it would be useful to go into a bit more detail on the filing requirements for a limited company, as there’s some that apply even if the company is dormant (not actively trading so not employing staff, have no income or transactions through a bank account).
There’s lots of information on gov.uk about dormant companies so I won’t repeat all of that here, but the main thing to remember here is that you still have to submit dormant company accounts when you’ve got a dormant limited company. You may still have to file a nil corporation tax return too. There’s detailed information on what counts as dormant for corporation tax purposes here. You still have to file confirmation statements too, we’ll get into those in a moment.
The main three filing requirements are:
Statutory Accounts
Corporation Tax Return
Confirmation Statement
So let’s start with Statutory Accounts.
As the name suggests, you have to do these! They are comprised of a set of reports that summarise your trading year to show everything your company owns, owes, sales, costs and any profit or loss. To show this it will include a profit and loss account and a balance sheet. Other information that needs to be provided as part of these include who controls the company. These must be filed with Companies House within 9 months of the end of your financial year, although you get 21 months for the first time after you registered. Finally, these accounts also have to be shared with all of the shareholders.
Next up is the Corporation Tax Return (yep, another tax return!)
As you might expect, it shows your company’s income and expenses, how much profit you (hopefully!) made and then what tax is owed on the taxable profit, which is not always the same as the profit shown in your accounts as it will be reduced by depreciation and capital allowances (don’t panic if you don’t know what that all means, that’s what we’re here for!). Now for the strange bit, it has to be filed within 12 months of your financial year end, but the amount you owe is due 9 months and a day after the financial year end so you have to pay it before you might have filed it!
Finally, the Confirmation Statement.
It has to be filed annually and, again, as the name suggests, it’s confirming the details about your company, such as the directors, shareholders, registered address, share capital and finally all the people who have significant control. You have to file this even if the company is dormant.
So, there you have it, the three main filing requirements for a limited company. Not too stressful and something that we can easily take care of for you as part of our bookkeeping and accounts package for you and your company.
