UK · Limited Company
Running a UK limited company means juggling CT600, payroll, VAT, and Companies House. FinnAccountings automates routine prep and surfaces what directors need to review with a qualified professional.
Directors must file confirmation statements, annual accounts, corporation tax returns, and often VAT and PAYE alongside personal self-assessment. Missing Companies House dates can strike off a company.
FinnAccountings tracks statutory deadlines, prepares CT600-ready profit figures, and models salary versus dividend withdrawals.
Legitimate planning uses pension contributions, capital allowances, and timing of dividends within retained profit. None of it depends on anything exotic; it depends on knowing the numbers early enough for timing to be a choice.
Dividends deserve particular care because they can only be paid out of distributable reserves. A distribution declared when the company has insufficient retained profit is unlawful and can be reclaimed from the director personally, whatever the intention behind it. Checking reserves before declaring, rather than after, is the whole of the discipline.
The AI CFO shows impact on personal and corporate tax before you declare distributions, so the salary and dividend mix is decided against current figures instead of last year's.
Read our company formation and tax returns guides, or start a trial for your limited company books.
A UK limited company runs several timetables at once. Annual accounts are generally due at Companies House within nine months of the accounting reference date. The corporation tax return follows within twelve months of the end of the accounting period. A confirmation statement is due at least once every twelve months.
The date most often missed sits between them: corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after the period ends, three months before the CT600 is due. Companies that prepare the return around the filing deadline find the payment was late before they started.
Add VAT quarters and real time payroll reporting and the year fills up quickly. One calendar per entity, with reminders escalating as each date approaches, is the difference between routine compliance and recurring penalties.
Most owner-managed companies pay a combination of salary and dividends, and the balance is genuinely worth calculating rather than copying. Personal allowances, National Insurance thresholds, corporation tax on retained profit, pension contributions, and whether you need earnings on record for a mortgage all pull in different directions.
Dividends can only be paid from distributable profits, which means the decision depends on figures that have to be accurate at the point of declaration. Books reconciled continuously make that a real-time question; books reconciled annually make it a guess corrected later.
Companies must keep accounting records sufficient to show and explain their transactions and disclose the financial position with reasonable accuracy, alongside statutory registers including the register of Persons with Significant Control.
PSC information has to stay current and is updated when control changes, not once a year with the confirmation statement. Changes in shareholding trigger their own obligations, and a register that only gets attention at filing time is a common source of avoidable correction.
Statutory accounts and taxable profit are not the same number. Depreciation in the accounts is replaced by capital allowances for tax, some provisions are disallowable, and certain expenditure attracts enhanced relief. The corporation tax computation exists precisely to bridge the two.
Problems arise when the two are produced from different sources at different times. Accounts filed at Companies House are public, the CT600 goes to HMRC, and contradictions between them are an obvious enquiry trigger. Preparing both from one reconciled ledger removes the discrepancy by construction rather than by reconciliation after the fact.
It also shortens the year-end. When bookkeeping has run continuously, adjustments, related-party disclosures, and dividend capacity are visible weeks before the deadline — while they can still influence decisions rather than merely describe them.
Directors carry personal duties under company law that no platform assumes on their behalf: keeping adequate accounting records, approving accounts, and ensuring filings are made. Persistent failure to file can lead to strike-off, and directors who continue trading through it lose the protection of limited liability.
FinnAccountings prepares drafts and export-ready packs with Chartered Accountant insight on the AI's output, and tracks the dates so nothing arrives unannounced. You or your qualified adviser — an ICAEW or ACCA member — review and submit to Companies House and HMRC. AI has no legal accountability for what is filed in the company's name.
A confirmation statement and annual accounts at Companies House, and a corporation tax return with HMRC, plus VAT returns and payroll reporting where applicable. Private company accounts are generally due at Companies House within nine months of the accounting reference date, and the CT600 within twelve months of the end of the accounting period.
For most small companies, corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period — before the CT600 filing deadline twelve months after period end. Companies routinely prepare the return around the filing date and discover the payment was due three months earlier.
Most owner-managed companies use a combination, and the balance depends on profits, personal allowances, National Insurance thresholds, pension contributions, and whether you need earnings on record for mortgage or benefit purposes. It is a planning question with real consequences, so model it with a qualified adviser rather than copying a rule of thumb.
Accounting records sufficient to show and explain the company's transactions and its financial position with reasonable accuracy, plus statutory registers including the register of Persons with Significant Control. PSC information must be kept current and updated when control changes, separately from the annual confirmation statement cycle.
No. We prepare draft accounts, corporation tax computations, VAT figures, and payroll submissions from reconciled bookkeeping, with Chartered Accountant insight on the AI's output. You or your qualified adviser review and submit to Companies House and HMRC.
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Organise transactions and receipts, flag what is missing, and prepare VAT and bookkeeping packs for Ireland and the UK — with you in control before anything is shared or filed.
