Limited company accounts & Corporation Tax
A small limited company has four separate deadlines across two government departments, and missing the first one costs £150 before anyone has even looked at your numbers. I prepare and file all four, for a fixed monthly fee you know before you commit.
Book a free 20-minute call"Most directors I speak to aren't confused about their numbers. They're confused about who files what, and when. That part is my job, not yours."
Christina Ding · Founder, Ding AccountingWhat your company actually has to file
Most people think of it as "doing the accounts". It is actually four separate obligations with four separate deadlines, and one of them is yours personally rather than the company's. Here is the whole picture in one place.
Year-end accounts prepared under FRS 105 or FRS 102 1A for micro and small companies, and filed at Companies House. Due nine months after your accounting reference date. Your very first set is due 21 months after incorporation, which is the one people miss.
Prepared and filed with HMRC, with the tax calculated and explained to you before anything is submitted. The return is due 12 months after your year end, but the tax itself is payable at nine months and one day. That gap catches almost everybody out at least once.
A completely separate filing from your accounts, and the one most often confused with them. It confirms your directors, shareholders and registered office once every 12 months, and is due within 14 days of your review date.
This one is yours, not the company's. If you take dividends or a salary above the threshold, you need a personal tax return by 31 January. It is included in the monthly fee, because filing the company's return without yours only does half the job.
How it works
Every company is a different size of job. Forty transactions a month is not the same work as four hundred, and pricing as though it were means one of us ends up unhappy. So the fee is fixed and the scope it covers is written down. If your volume puts you in a different band, you will hear it from me on the call, not from an invoice six months later.
Company package — one monthly fee
Covers a single-director company with up to 100 transactions a month, one business bank account, and not VAT registered. A transaction means a line on your business bank or card statement, money in or out — not invoices or receipts. Higher volumes and VAT-registered companies are quoted at the next band, and I will tell you which band you are in on the call, before you commit to anything. No VAT is added to my fees because I am not VAT registered.
The honest bit
Companies House charges £150 if your accounts are up to a month late, £375 at one to three months, £750 at three to six, and £1,500 beyond that. The penalty is doubled if you are late two years running. These are automatic. There is no discretion to appeal to and nothing to negotiate.
HMRC penalises the Corporation Tax return separately: £100 immediately, another £100 at three months, then 10% of the unpaid tax at six months and a further 10% at twelve. Two departments, two sets of penalties, for what most directors think of as one job called "the accounts". Tracking both is the part of this work that quietly pays for itself.
Switching accountants
If you already have an accountant and it is not working, switching is a standard, well-trodden professional process, and I do nearly all of it. You will not need an awkward break-up conversation, and nothing gets lost in the middle.
That is the only part you do. You do not even need to tell your current accountant yourself if you would rather not.
I write to your current practice for professional clearance and your records. This happens between practices all the time; nobody takes it personally.
I pick up from your last filed accounts, flag anything missing, and confirm your fixed fee before any work starts. Moving mid-year is completely normal.
Questions directors ask
The one-off fee covers your year-end accounts and CT600 where you hand over clean, complete records you have kept yourself. The monthly package includes the bookkeeping, so the records are done as we go, nothing is reconstructed in a panic after your year end, and a mistake gets caught in month two rather than month fourteen. If you genuinely keep good books yourself, the one-off route is cheaper and I will tell you so.
I tell you at the call, before you commit to anything, and quote the band that actually fits. If your business grows past the band part-way through the year, I will raise it at the point it happens and we agree the new fee before it applies. You will never find out from an invoice.
No. I do not offer payroll or company formation. If you need payroll, I would rather point you to someone who does it properly than take it on to keep the work.
No. A single-director company has exactly the same four filings as a much larger one. The volume of work is smaller, which is why the fee is what it is, but the deadlines and the penalties are identical.
Any time. Moving part-way through your financial year is completely normal. I pick up from your last filed accounts, request your records through the standard professional clearance process, and carry on from there.
A free 20-minute call, no obligation. Tell me your year end and roughly how many transactions a month, and I will tell you exactly what it would cost.
Book your free call