Please prioritise sending your year-end information to us as soon as practicable after your financial year ends. Waiting until the filing deadline approaches can leave your business with an unexpected tax bill and too little time to deal with it.
We need your records early enough to prepare the accounts, investigate queries and give you time to review and approve them. Handing over information shortly before a deadline leaves very little room for any of those steps.
Your accounts are more useful when they are current
Accounts prepared soon after year end give you a clearer view of how your business has performed. You can review profit margins, identify rising costs and consider what needs to change while those figures are still relevant to your next decisions.
If the accounts are left for many months, you may already be well into the next financial year before problems become clear. That can mean continuing with prices or spending levels that need attention. Regular management information remains important too, especially where the business is changing quickly.
Know your Corporation Tax bill while there is time to budget
Early preparation allows us to calculate your Corporation Tax liability sooner. You then have time to set money aside and plan your cash flow around the payment date. Discovering the bill just before it falls due can put pressure on money needed for wages, suppliers or other commitments.
Preparing or filing your accounts early does not, by itself, bring the normal tax payment deadline forward. Knowing what you owe earlier gives you more time to plan for the same deadline.
Give us time to check the detail and discuss the figures
Missing invoices, unexplained payments and differences in balances take time to resolve. Transactions are usually easier to explain while they are fresh in your memory. Sending complete records promptly gives us time to check eligible expenses and reliefs, discuss questions and explain the results.
It also creates space to discuss planning for the current year. Some decisions must be made before the relevant year end, so contact us during the year as well. Finishing an earlier set of accounts cannot make a later decision apply retrospectively.
The legal deadline is the latest filing date
Companies House and HMRC have separate deadlines. Your information needs to reach us well before these dates so the preparation, review and approval can be completed.
| Requirement | Usual deadline |
|---|---|
| Annual accounts at Companies House | 9 months after the financial year end |
| Corporation Tax payment | 9 months and 1 day after the tax accounting period ends |
| Company Tax Return to HMRC | 12 months after the tax accounting period ends |
First accounts and companies paying Corporation Tax by instalments can have different deadlines. We will confirm the dates relevant to your company.
Waiting can create avoidable costs and delays
Late accounts can hold up borrowing or other finance applications when a lender asks for recent figures. Delays can also mean spending extra time retrieving old records and explaining transactions that would have been straightforward to deal with earlier.
Missing filing deadlines can lead to penalties. Late Corporation Tax payments can attract interest. Even when the eventual filing is on time, last-minute preparation still leaves you with less time to understand the accounts and plan for the tax bill.
Sending records near the deadline does not guarantee that the accounts can be completed and filed in time. Missing information, unanswered questions and delays in your approval can all prevent completion. Please allow time for the whole process, rather than just the initial handover.
What to send and what to do if something is missing
Keep your bookkeeping up to date and provide the year-end information we request. Depending on your business, this may include bank and loan statements, missing invoices, stock figures and details of asset purchases or disposals. Access to your accounting software alone may not provide everything we need.
The practical drawback of preparing early is having to organise your records sooner. Some documents may still be outstanding. Tell us what is missing so we can agree how to proceed. Preparing accounts early does not necessarily mean publishing them immediately; we can discuss the filing timetable within the legal deadline.
Please start gathering your records as soon as your year ends, send them promptly and reply quickly to our queries. If you are having difficulty, contact your usual APH adviser early so we can help you work out the next steps.
GOV.UK guidance: Company deadlines