UK Company Filing Deadlines: The Key Dates and What Happens If You Miss Them

Most missed deadlines are not the result of disorganisation. They happen because a limited company has different obligations running on different cycles, and the dates do not always line up in an intuitive way.

You can file your VAT returns punctually all year and still incur interest on Corporation Tax, because the tax itself is normally payable three months before the return reporting it is due.

For most UK limited companies, the main recurring corporate and tax deadlines sit across two bodies: Companies House and HMRC. Add payroll, VAT and a director's personal tax position, and the calendar quickly becomes difficult to manage from memory.

This guide brings the key recurring deadlines together, explains what happens when they are missed, and shows how the dates interact.

Two main bodies, different clocks

Companies House maintains the public company register. Its recurring requirements include annual accounts and the confirmation statement.

HMRC administers Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE and other taxes. A director may also have personal Self Assessment obligations depending on their income.

These systems are separate.

Filing annual accounts at Companies House does not file the company's Corporation Tax return with HMRC, and filing the Corporation Tax return does not satisfy the Companies House accounts requirement — even though much of the underlying financial information overlaps.

Companies House: annual accounts

Deadline: nine months after your accounting reference date.

A company with a 31 March year end must therefore file by 31 December.

First accounts work differently. For many newly incorporated private companies, the first filing deadline is 21 months after incorporation. Technically, where the first accounts cover more than 12 months, the deadline is 21 months from incorporation or three months after the accounting reference date, whichever is later.

The penalties

They double if you file late in two consecutive years. A company that is a month late twice running pays £150 the first year and £300 the second.

The penalty arises automatically once acceptable accounts are filed late, although there is a limited appeals process for exceptional circumstances.

There is a further point that gets overlooked: failing to file accounts on time is a criminal offence, and the responsibility sits with the directors personally, not with the company. Prosecution is rare, but the exposure is individual.

Can you extend it?

Yes, but only before the deadline passes. You can apply to Companies House for more time if there is a genuine reason — an unexpected event outside your control. An application made after the deadline will not be considered.

Companies House: confirmation statement

Deadline: within 14 days of the end of your review period.

Your review period runs for twelve months from either the date of incorporation or the date of your last confirmation statement, whichever is later.

This is a shorter window than most people realise. Fourteen days is not much, and unlike the accounts deadline it moves depending on when you last filed.

Filing early moves the cycle. If you file a confirmation statement early, you choose a new confirmation statement date and the next review period starts the following day.

What it actually does: it confirms that the information Companies House holds about the company is up to date. Some information can be updated through the confirmation statement, while changes such as directors or registered office details must generally be notified separately.

The fee went up in February 2026

Companies House increased its fees from 1 February 2026:

The paper premium on a confirmation statement is now £60 a year. If you are still filing on paper out of habit, that habit costs money.

Once you have paid the annual fee, any additional confirmation statements filed within the same payment period are free.

The consequences of filing late

Unlike late annual accounts, there is no fixed automatic penalty scale based simply on how many months late you are.

However, Companies House can impose financial penalties for failure to file a confirmation statement, prosecute directors, and ultimately strike the company off the register.

The company also shows as overdue on the public register, where anyone can see it — lenders, suppliers, prospective clients and competitors.

A company struck off ceases to exist, and its assets pass to the Crown. Restoration is possible but expensive and slow.

Identity verification is now part of this

Since 18 November 2025, identity verification has been a legal requirement for directors and people with significant control. Companies House will not accept a confirmation statement until all of the company's directors have complied.

If you have not yet dealt with this, it will block your next confirmation statement. We have covered the requirement, the deadlines and the three ways to verify in a separate article.

HMRC: Corporation Tax

This is where the two-deadline problem bites.

Payment: nine months and one day after the end of your accounting period.

Filing: twelve months after the end of your accounting period.

Read those again. You pay first, then file. For a 31 March year end, Corporation Tax is payable by 1 January and the CT600 return is due by 31 March the following year — three months after the money.

That means you have to estimate and pay your tax liability before the return that calculates it has been prepared. In practice this is why accountants want your records early, and why leaving the accounts until February produces an interest charge.

Companies with profits above £1.5 million pay in quarterly instalments under a different regime.

The penalties

Penalties for late filing of a Company Tax Return increased for returns with a filing date on or after 1 April 2026.

If a return is late three times in a row, the two fixed penalties increase to £1,000 each.

Late payment is separate from late filing. Interest runs on unpaid Corporation Tax from the due date, at HMRC's statutory rate, and it accrues daily. You do not get a notification when it starts.

HMRC: VAT

Deadline: one month and seven days after the end of each VAT period. Both the return and the payment.

Most businesses file quarterly, so a quarter ending 31 March has a deadline of 7 May.

VAT returns must be submitted through MTD-compatible software. HMRC's online portal is no longer available for this.

The penalty points system

VAT late submission penalties work on points, not fixed fines.

Each late return earns one penalty point. When you reach the threshold, a £200 penalty applies — and every subsequent late return while you remain at the threshold brings another £200.

The threshold depends on how often you file:

Points do not simply expire. Once you have reached the threshold, you must complete a period of compliance — twelve months for quarterly filers — and submit all outstanding returns for the previous 24 months before the points reset.

Late payment penalties are separate again, and are charged as a percentage of the outstanding VAT, increasing the longer it remains unpaid, with interest on top.

Registration

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover exceeds the threshold in any rolling twelve-month period. The deadline for telling HMRC is 30 days after the end of the month in which you crossed it.

Late registration produces a failure-to-notify penalty, calculated as a percentage of the VAT you should have charged from the date you should have been registered.

HMRC will still expect the VAT due from the date you should have been registered. If you cannot recover that VAT from customers afterwards, the business may have to fund the amount itself.

HMRC: payroll

If you have employees — including yourself as a director on a salary — payroll creates the most frequent deadlines of all.

RTI submissions: on or before each pay date. Not after. If you pay on the 25th, the Full Payment Submission must reach HMRC on or before the 25th.

PAYE and National Insurance payment: by the 22nd of the following month if paying electronically, or the 19th if paying by post. Smaller employers may qualify to pay quarterly.

P60s: by 31 May, to employees who were working for you on 5 April.

P11D and P11D(b): 6 July, where annual benefit reporting is still required. Mandatory payrolling begins for specified benefits from April 2027.

Class 1A National Insurance payment: 22 July if paying electronically, or 19 July by cheque.

The penalties

RTI late filing penalties are monthly and scale with the size of your payroll scheme:

The first late filing in each tax year is generally not penalised, except for annual PAYE schemes.

Late payment of PAYE attracts interest, and repeated late payments attract escalating penalties.

Self Assessment, where the director needs to file

Being a company director does not, by itself, mean that you must file a Self Assessment return. You may need to file one if, for example, you receive dividends or have other untaxed income.

Filing deadline: 31 January following the end of the tax year, for online returns. So the 2025/26 return is due by 31 January 2027.

Payment deadlines: 31 January for the balancing payment and the first payment on account, and 31 July for the second payment on account.

The penalties

The £100 applies even if you owe nothing at all.

This regime is changing. New points-based penalties already apply as taxpayers enter Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and HMRC has said the new regime will extend to all personal Self Assessment returns from April 2027.

Payments on account catch people out. If your tax bill exceeds a certain threshold, you pay half of the following year's estimated liability in January and the other half in July. In your first year of self-employment, the January bill can therefore be one and a half times what you expected.

Putting it together

For a company with a 31 March year end, employees, and quarterly VAT:

Multiple recurring obligations, running on monthly, quarterly and annual cycles, across two bodies. It is not a memory problem — it is a calendar-management problem.

What actually works

Put every date in a calendar at the start of the year, with a reminder two weeks ahead. Not the deadline itself — the deadline is when it is too late to start.

Work backwards from the payment date, not the filing date. For Corporation Tax, the money is due three months before the return. Your accounts need to be far enough along by month eight to produce a reliable estimate.

Treat the confirmation statement as a fixed annual task. It is only fourteen days, and it moves depending on when you last filed.

Deal with identity verification before it blocks a filing. It only becomes visible as a problem at the moment you try to file.

Check your registered office post. Companies House and HMRC both write there. If that address is a service provider or an old accountant, make sure the post reaches you.