Companies House Filing Deadlines Every Small Business Owner Should Know

Running a limited company means answering to two different regulators on two different timetables, and it's easy to lose track of which deadline belongs to which. Companies House and HMRC are separate bodies with separate filing requirements, and confusing the two — or simply forgetting one is coming — is one of the most common, and most avoidable, compliance mistakes small business owners make. Missing either can mean automatic penalties, even if the business itself is doing perfectly well.

Two regulators, two sets of deadlines

Companies House holds your company's public record: your annual accounts and your confirmation statement sit here. HMRC deals with tax: your Corporation Tax return and payment, and your VAT returns if you're registered. Filing your accounts with Companies House does nothing to satisfy HMRC, and paying your Corporation Tax does nothing to satisfy Companies House — each has its own submission, its own portal, and its own penalty regime if you're late. Treating them as one combined "accounts deadline" is how businesses end up missing one while focused on the other.

Your annual accounts

Every limited company must file annual accounts with Companies House, whether the business traded that year or not. Accounts are due a set number of months after your company's financial year end, and the rule is slightly different for your very first set of accounts than for every year after. Because the exact timing depends on your company's specific year end and history, don't rely on a rough rule of thumb — your actual due date is shown on your company's record once you search for it on the Companies House website, and it's worth checking it directly rather than estimating.

Your confirmation statement

Separately from your accounts, every company must file a confirmation statement at least once every twelve months. It's a short return confirming that the core information Companies House holds — directors, registered office, shareholders, people with significant control — is still accurate, or updating it if anything has changed. It's easy to overlook precisely because it feels like a formality, but a missed confirmation statement is treated with the same seriousness as missed accounts, and it runs on its own separate date.

What happens if you miss a deadline

Late filing penalties for accounts increase the longer the accounts remain outstanding, and they apply automatically — there's no discretion for "we were busy." Persistent late filing can affect how lenders, suppliers and credit reference agencies view your company, since your filing history is public. In the most serious or prolonged cases, Companies House can begin the process of striking the company off the register altogether. None of this is designed to catch out an honest business — the dates are fixed well in advance and published on your public record — so the real risk is usually not knowing the deadline rather than deliberately missing it.

Keeping on top of both dates

• Note your accounts deadline and your confirmation statement deadline separately as soon as your company year end is confirmed, and check both directly on the Companies House website rather than from memory.
• Build in a buffer of several weeks before the actual due date, so a late invoice, a slow bank feed, or a holiday doesn't turn into a missed filing.
• Keep your bookkeeping current throughout the year rather than reconstructing it in a rush beforehand — accounts prepared from clean, up-to-date records take far less time to finalise and file.
• If your accounting reference date has ever changed, double-check your current deadline rather than assuming it's the same as last year.

This isn't personalised advice — your specific deadlines depend on your company's individual circumstances, so always confirm the dates that apply to you on gov.uk or your Companies House record. If you'd rather hand the whole process over, our annual accounts service keeps both your accounts and your statutory filings on track throughout the year, not just in the weeks before they're due.