• Companion guide: a practical, calendar-style companion to “UK Company Registration and Companies House Compliance” — this one focuses purely on tracking and meeting the recurring filing deadlines once a company is already registered.
• Two independent clocks: Companies House deadlines (confirmation statement, annual accounts) and HMRC deadlines (Corporation Tax registration, CT600, tax payment) run on separate schedules anchored to different dates — the incorporation date for some, the accounting reference date for others.
• Everything is calculable from two dates: once a company knows its incorporation date and its accounting reference date (usually the last day of the month it was incorporated in, one year later), every recurring deadline can be worked out in advance and calendared.
• Missing a Companies House deadline is a compliance risk, not just a fee — for the confirmation statement, non-filing risks strike-off; for accounts, it’s an automatic escalating penalty regardless of whether tax is even owed.

Scope & Objective

Registering a company correctly is a one-time event; staying compliant with it is not. This guide sets out, deadline by deadline, exactly when each recurring UK filing falls due, how to calculate the specific dates for your own company, and what a practical internal calendar for tracking them looks like.

• Builds on: “UK Company Registration and Companies House Compliance,” which explains what each filing is and why it exists — this guide assumes that context and focuses on the dates themselves.
• Applies to: any private company limited by shares already incorporated with Companies House.

Finding Your Two Anchor Dates

Every recurring deadline a UK company faces can be calculated from just two dates, both of which are fixed at incorporation and rarely change afterward.

• Incorporation date: shown on the Certificate of Incorporation and on the public register. This anchors the confirmation statement cycle.
• Accounting reference date (ARD): automatically set by Companies House as the last day of the month in which the company was incorporated, one year later — for example, a company incorporated on 14 March 2026 has an ARD of 31 March 2027, and every 31 March after that. This anchors the accounts and Corporation Tax cycle. A company can change its ARD (within limits), but most small companies simply keep the default.

Building the Confirmation Statement Calendar

The confirmation statement runs on a rolling 12-month review period from incorporation (or from the date of the last confirmation statement).

• Review period ends: 12 months after incorporation (or after the last confirmation statement’s review period ended).
• Filing deadline: 14 days after the review period ends.
• Worked example: a company incorporated on 1 June 2026 has its first review period end on 31 May 2027, giving a filing deadline of 14 June 2027. Assuming it’s filed on time, the next review period ends 31 May 2028, deadline 14 June 2028, and so on for the life of the company.
• Calendar entries to set: a reminder a few weeks before each review-period end date, so the £34 filing fee and the details review can be handled well before the 14-day window opens, not during it.

Building the Annual Accounts Calendar

Annual accounts run on the accounting reference date, with a longer first-year window.

• First accounts: due 21 months after the incorporation date, or 3 months after the first ARD, whichever is longer.
• Subsequent accounts: due 9 months after each ARD.
• Worked example: for the 1 June 2026 incorporation above, the ARD is 30 June 2027. First accounts are due by the later of 1 March 2028 (21 months from incorporation) or 30 September 2027 (3 months from the ARD) — in this case, 1 March 2028. Every year after that, accounts are due 9 months after each 30 June ARD, i.e. by 31 March.
• Calendar entries to set: a working reminder roughly 2 months before each 9-month deadline, giving enough runway to close the books, prepare the accounts, and file — since the penalty for even one day late starts at £150 and there is no grace period.

Building the Corporation Tax Calendar

Corporation Tax follows the same accounting reference period as the statutory accounts, but with its own separate HMRC deadlines layered on top.

• Registering for Corporation Tax: within 3 months of starting to trade — a one-time deadline, not recurring, but easy to miss because it’s measured from trading activity, not incorporation.
• CT600 (Company Tax Return): due 12 months after the end of each accounting period.
• Corporation Tax payment: due 9 months and 1 day after the end of each accounting period — several months before the CT600 covering that same period is actually due.
• Worked example (same company, ARD 30 June): for the accounting period ending 30 June 2027, Corporation Tax payment is due 1 April 2028, while the CT600 for that same period isn’t due until 30 June 2028 — a sequencing gap that catches many new directors off guard, since it’s natural to assume the return is due before the payment, not after.

A Consolidated Filing Calendar Template

Bringing all three cycles together for a company with a 1 June incorporation date and 30 June accounting reference date, the recurring annual pattern looks like this once the first year has passed:

• 14 June — confirmation statement deadline.
• 1 April — Corporation Tax payment deadline (9 months + 1 day after the 30 June period end).
• 31 March — annual accounts deadline (9 months after the 30 June ARD).
• 30 June — CT600 deadline (12 months after the period end) — coinciding with the next accounting period’s own end date, which is worth flagging clearly on any calendar so the two aren’t confused.

Because these four dates fall in different months, a company that sets calendar reminders 4-6 weeks ahead of each one avoids the common failure mode of treating compliance as a single annual scramble.

Common Calendar Mistakes

• Assuming all deadlines are anchored to the incorporation date — only the confirmation statement is; accounts and Corporation Tax follow the accounting reference date instead.
• Setting only one reminder per deadline, right before it’s due — leaving no time to fix a problem discovered late. Two reminders (an early one and a final one) catch far more issues.
• Forgetting that a changed accounting reference date shifts every subsequent accounts and Corporation Tax deadline, not just the next one.
• Confusing the CT600 deadline with the payment deadline — payment is due first, several months before the return itself.
• Not recalendaring after a late filing — a company that files late once should specifically double-check its next deadline, since the accounts late-filing penalty doubles for two consecutive late years.

Registering a UK Company or Staying Companies House Compliant?

Need expert help with UK company formation, PSC register maintenance, confirmation statements, or annual accounts? Contact our Corporate Compliance & Registration team today.

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