Confirmation statement vs annual accounts: what directors confuse


Every year, limited company directors must send Companies House two separate filings: the confirmation statement and the annual accounts. The names sound similar, they go to the same organisation, and they even use the same filing portal. Yet they do completely different jobs, on completely different deadlines. Mix them up and you can easily file one, forget the other, and learn about the mistake from a penalty notice. Here they are, side by side.

The confirmation statement: checking the facts

The confirmation statement, form CS01, is Companies House checking that its public register is still accurate. It confirms who the directors are, the registered office address, the share capital, the shareholders, the people with significant control, and the SIC code describing the business. It contains no financial figures at all. Think of it as the company's identity card: are the facts still right?

The deadline runs from your incorporation date, not your financial year end. Your review period ends twelve months after incorporation, or twelve months after your last statement, and you have fourteen days from that date to file. There is a fee, currently 50 pounds to file online, and you pay it each time, even if nothing has changed, which it often has not. Filing when nothing has changed is the most common use case of all: you review, confirm, pay, done.

Since November 2025, every director must have verified their identity with Companies House and hold a personal code, or the confirmation statement cannot be filed. Get this done well before your statement date.

Miss the confirmation statement and there is no automatic fine like HMRC's penalties. The risk is worse: Companies House can begin striking the company off the register. Strike-off dissolves the company, its bank balance and other assets can pass to the Crown, and directors who kept trading afterwards can be held personally liable for debts.

The annual accounts: reporting the numbers

Annual accounts are the financial statements: the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, and the notes, filed under the Companies Act and shown to the world. For small and micro companies, the filing can use simplified formats, but it is still a real set of numbers, not a confirmation exercise.

The deadline is nine months after the end of your financial year, a completely different date from the confirmation statement. For a company with a December year end, accounts are due by 30 September; the confirmation statement date depends on the incorporation month. First-year accounts get twenty-one months from incorporation to file. Companies House applies automatic late-filing penalties that start at 150 pounds and rise to 1,500 pounds, doubling if you are late two years in a row. Unlike the confirmation statement, accounts carry no fee to file.

The preparation matters too: accounts are drawn from your bookkeeping, and anything on the balance sheet, including director's loans, is visible to anyone who looks the company up.

The side-by-side comparison

  • Purpose: the confirmation statement checks that company details are correct; the annual accounts report the financial results.
  • Contents: CS01 lists directors, shareholders, share capital, SIC code, registered office; accounts show profit, loss, assets, liabilities and notes.
  • Deadline: confirmation statement within fourteen days of the annual review date; accounts nine months after the financial year end.
  • Fee: confirmation statement costs 50 pounds to file online; accounts are free to file.
  • Late penalty: late confirmation statements risk strike-off; late accounts attract automatic fines from 150 pounds.
  • Even if dormant: both must still be filed.

Who prepares each one

You can file both yourself through Companies House WebFiling. The confirmation statement genuinely takes ten minutes if your details have not changed. The annual accounts are a different proposition: they require proper bookkeeping, knowledge of the reporting standards for small companies, and care with the notes and disclosures.

Most small companies outsource the accounts while handling the confirmation statement themselves, or delegate both. What matters is that someone tracks both dates.

What happens when directors mix them up

The two most common mistakes are mirror images. The first: filing the confirmation statement on time and assuming that covers everything, then missing the accounts deadline nine months later and collecting a 150-pound fine. The second: preparing beautiful accounts with an accountant and assuming compliance is complete, while the confirmation statement quietly goes overdue and strike-off proceedings begin.

They also get confused in conversation with accountants. "Have you done the annual filing?" can mean either one, so ask for both by name. And remember that neither of them is the corporation tax return, which goes to HMRC, not Companies House, on yet another deadline.

Keeping company compliance on track is exactly what professional management accounting services include: the bookkeeping, the management packs and the deadlines calendar, handled together. If Companies House filings are just one part of an admin load that keeps growing, Finex Outsourcing takes the whole function, so every filing lands on time and nothing falls between the cracks.

By John Thomas, Senior Accountant


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Director's salary vs dividends in 2026/27: the plain-practical breakdown

Image
Every company director faces the same question: should I pay myself a salary, dividends, or a mix of the two? The two routes are taxed completely differently, and the most efficient mix depends on the current thresholds and rates. Here is the breakdown in plain terms. How salary is taxed Salary goes through PAYE and attracts both income tax and national insurance. For 2026/27 the personal allowance is 12,570 pounds, so the first 12,570 of salary is income-tax free. Employee national insurance is 8 per cent on earnings between 12,570 and 50,270 pounds, and 2 per cent above that. The company also pays employer national insurance at 15 per cent on salary above the secondary threshold of 5,000 pounds. The one consolation: salary and employer national insurance are both deductible against corporation tax, which softens the cost. The tax-efficient salary level For many directors the starting point is a salary of 12,570 pounds. At that level there is no income tax and no employee national...
Read more

Dividend Vouchers: The Paperwork Every Limited Company Must Get Right

Image
By John Thomas, Senior Accountant Dividends are the most tax-efficient way for most company directors to take profit out of their business, but only if the paperwork is right. Every dividend a limited company pays must be properly declared and documented. Get it wrong, and what you thought was a dividend can be reclassified as salary or even an illegal distribution, with tax and legal consequences. The good news: the paperwork itself is simple, and takes minutes when you know what is required. Why the paperwork matters A dividend is not just money moved from the company bank account to your personal account. Legally, it is a distribution of the company's profits to its shareholders, and it must be formally declared by the directors. The paperwork proves three things: that the directors actually declared a dividend, that the company had sufficient distributable profits to pay it, and how much each shareholder received. This matters in two situations. First, HMRC enquiries: witho...
Read more

The PSC register: persons with significant control, explained

Image
Every UK limited company must keep a register of persons with significant control, and the information goes on the public record at Companies House. It is one of those compliance duties that is simple in theory and easy to get wrong in practice. Here is what directors need to know. Who counts as a PSC A person with significant control is anyone who holds, directly or indirectly, more than 25 percent of the shares or voting rights, can appoint or remove a majority of directors, or otherwise exercises significant influence or control over the company. Most small companies have one or two obvious PSCs (the founders). The complications start with joint holdings, corporate shareholders, and control exercised through agreements rather than shareholdings. What must be recorded For each PSC, the register must record their name, service address, residential address (not public), date of birth, nationality, and the nature of their control. The public register shows everything except the resident...
Read more