Do you know what the key limited company dates are?
And more importantly – what happens if you miss a deadline?
Keep watching to find out!
Hi there, Nicholas Campion here from 1st Formations.
The UK’s leading company formation agent.
So, you’ve set up your limited company and you now have a list of company dates.
You don’t know what they are,
and you don’t know what happens if you miss any due by dates.
Well, don’t worry.
In this video we’ll define the company dates, look at the ramifications
of missing deadlines, and show you how we can help.
First up then, we’ll take a look at the confirmation statement dates.
The confirmation statement
is an annual filing obligation for all limited companies.
Its purpose is to confirm
whether the information held at Companies House is up-to-date.
Now, the statement date is the period
that your confirmation statement should report up to.
It is automatically set as the anniversary
of your incorporation, minus one day.
A company’s first confirmation statement should cover the period
from the incorporation date, up to the statement date –
this is known as the review period.
If your company has previously filed a confirmation statement,
the review period will cover the last statement date,
up until the next statement date.
If the ‘statement date’ passes without action,
this is not a problem, provided you file before the due by date.
The ‘statement due by date’ is when the confirmation statement must be filed by.
This falls 14 days after the confirmation statement date.
That’s quite a bit to take in, so let’s just illustrate this with an example:
Let’s say you register a company on 1st August 2022.
The statement date is set as 31st July 2023.
The review period is therefore 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023.
You should file the confirmation statement
no later than 14th August 2023 – the statement due by date.
The next confirmation statement date would be 31st July 2024
with a next statement due by date of 14th August 2024.
You can file an early confirmation statement if you wish.
For example, you may have had a shareholding change
and want to notify Companies House earlier than is required.
This is permitted but bear in mind
it will impact the statement date for your following confirmation statement.
If you miss the ‘statement due by date’,
you are in breach of the Companies Act 2006 and so you are breaking the law.
Officers could be penalised by up to £5,000 each and your company
will eventually be struck off the register if no confirmation statement is filed.
Fortunately, none of this happens immediately –
but if you do accidentally let the deadline pass,
act swiftly to avoid costly penalties and company closure.
So those are your confirmation statement dates.
Next up, we’ll take a look at the annual accounts’ dates.
Annual accounts are a filing obligation made regarding the company’s
financial performance.
It doesn’t matter if your company is trading or not,
you still need to file annual accounts with Companies House and HMRC.
The first important date regarding your accounts is called
the ‘accounting reference date’, also known as the ‘ARD’.
This indicates the period that the annual accounts should report up to.
It is automatically the last day of the month
of your company’s incorporation anniversary.
You can change your company’s accounting reference date;
however, this will impact the financial year for your company.
If the ‘accounting reference date’ passes
without action, this is not a problem.
Filing is not necessary until after this date.
However, this is not the case for the second key
date here: the ‘accounts due by date’.
The annual accounts must be filed with Companies House by this date.
The first set of accounts should be filed 21 months from the incorporation date.
Subsequent annual accounts should be filed 9 months from the accounting reference date.
If you miss this important deadline, you are breaking the law
and you will face paying a late filing penalty,
the total of which depends on how late you end up filing.
This penalty can rise to £1,500 and will double
if you’re late 2 years in a row.
Choosing not to file at all
will result in company closure and, potentially, criminal prosecution.
So, again, to make this a bit easier,
let’s look at a quick example of how those dates would work in practice:
You register a company on 1st August 2022.
The accounting reference date, or ARD, is set at 31st August 2023.
You should file the first set of annual accounts
no later than 1st May 2024 – the accounts due by date.
The following accounting reference date is 31st August 2024
and the next accounts due by date would be 31st May 2025.
So, those are the dates for your confirmation statement and annual accounts.
If you formed your limited company with 1st Formations,
you will be able to find these dates in your free online company manager.
If you didn’t form with 1st Formations, you’ll still be able
to locate them at Companies House.
Finally let’s turn our attention to the last set of deadlines
all companies need to immediately concern themselves with –
and that is with regards to Corporation Tax and Company Tax Returns.
If your company is trading, you need to know about Corporation Tax,
Company Tax Returns, and the associated deadlines.
This is because UK companies are required to pay
19% Corporation Tax on profits they make.
A Company Tax Return is a report – produced by you
that outlines how much Corporation Tax you need to pay.
Corporation Tax must be paid
before the corresponding Company Tax Return is delivered.
The rules can be summarized as follows:
You will need to register for Corporation Tax with HMRC
within 3 months of starting to trade.
You must pay Corporation Tax
9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period.
You need to prepare and file a Company Tax Return with HMRC
within 12 months of the end of your accounting period.
The penalty for late payment of Corporation Tax
depends on the amount of outstanding tax – or ‘potential lost revenue’.
However, HMRC will listen to any ‘reasonable excuse’
you may have for missing the deadline.
If you miss your Company Tax Return deadline you will need to pay
a £100 penalty, which then increases
depending on how late you are, and how often you are late.
So, that’s everything you
need to know about company dates and deadlines.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below
and we’ll get straight back to you!
And if you are thinking of starting a limited company, we’d love to help you.
We offer a variety of company formation packages, all designed
to get your business up and running as quickly and simply as possible.
Take a look at 1stformations.co.uk,
that’s ONE-S-T for all of our formation options.
Again, if you do have any questions, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you.
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We're always happy to help, and we can't wait to hear from you.
Until next time, cheerio!