What Are These?
Financial Accounts And Corporate Tax Return
A company is required to submit it's statutory accounts at the end of it's financial year.
The accounts must be sent to:
all shareholders
Companies House
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as part of your company tax return
The statutory accounts consist of balance sheet, profit and loss account, notes to the account and a director's report.
The deadline for submitting the accounts is 9 months after your company's financial year end.
The corporate tax return must be submitted to HMRC 12 months after the accounting period for tax (usually the same 12 month period covered by your company's financial year.
The corporate tax return is used to calculate the amount of tax you owe. The tax due has to be paid 9 months and 1 day after your accounting period for tax.
Confirmation Statement
Companies House requires that every UK limited company files a confirmation statement on the anniversary of it's incorporation.
The confirmation statement confirms details held by Companies House and includes:
principal business activities or standard industrial classification (SIC) code
information about people with significant control (PSC)
officers of the company
business details
statement of capital
trading status of shares
shareholder information
Failing to submit a confirmation statement will result in the business being struck from the registrar.
Self Assessment Tax Return
Self Assessment is a system HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses to collect Income Tax.
Tax is usually deducted automatically from wages, pensions and savings. People and businesses with other income must report it in a self assessment tax return.
The tax return covers the tax year 6th April to 5th April of the following year and must be submitted by 31st January in the year after 5th April.
You need to send a tax return if, in the last tax year:
you were self-employed - you can deduct allowable expenses
you got £2,500 or more in untaxed income, for example from tips or renting out a property - contact the helpline if it was less than £2,500
your income from savings or investments was £10,000 or more before tax
your income from dividends from shares was £10,000 or more before tax
you made profits from selling things like shares, a second home or other chargeable assets and need to pay Capital Gains Tax
you were a company director - unless it was for a non-profit organisation (such as a charity) and you didn’t get any pay or benefits, like a company car
your income (or your partner’s) was over £50,000 and one of you claimed Child Benefit
you had income from abroad that you needed to pay tax on
your income was over £100,000
you were a trustee of a trust or registered pension scheme
you had a P800 from HMRC saying you didn’t pay enough tax last year - and you didn’t pay what you owe through your tax code or with a voluntary payment
if HMRC have asked you to file one
There are penalties for late filing starting from £100 if the return is up to 3 months late and increasing significantly after 3 months.
Sole Trader Accounts
There is no legal requirement to submit a set of sole trader accounts, but it is important for a sole trader to produce these for his/her own analysis of the business and to potentially show to financial institutions when applying for loans etc.
The figures within the sole trader accounts are used to calculate the profits to be used in the self assessment tax return.
The accounts usually consist of a profit and loss accountant and balance sheet.