Year-end accounts for limited companies
The accounts decide your tax, and lenders, buyers and credit agencies read them. We prepare them from reconciled records, raise the tax-saving questions before the year end closes, and go through the accounts with you.
- Reconciled, with real working papers
- The tax-saving questions asked before the year end
- A meeting about what the accounts say
- Filed at Companies House and HMRC
- The tax computation alongside
Statutory accounts
Every limited company files accounts at Companies House and a fuller set with its tax return. Those are the same numbers a lender, a buyer, a landlord and a credit agency will use to decide about you, often years later, without ever speaking to you.
The year-end service
- 1The file prepared properly
Reconciled balance sheet, supported by working papers rather than by a plug. Every number on the accounts can be traced back to something.
- 2The questions asked before the year end
Directors' loan positions, dividends that need paperwork, capital allowances worth claiming, a stock figure that needs counting. Most of what saves tax has to be decided before the year end closes.
- 3A meeting about what they say
We go through the accounts with you: what moved, what it means, and what to do differently this year.
- 4Filed at Companies House and with HMRC
Both, on time, with the confirmations in your portal.
- 5The tax computation alongside
So the accounts and the corporation tax return agree, and the tax figure does not arrive as a surprise weeks later.
Deadlines and late filing penalties
- Companies House
- Nine months after the accounting reference date for a private company. The late filing penalty starts at £150 and reaches £1,500 at six months, and it doubles if you were late the previous year too.
- Corporation tax payment
- Nine months and one day after the period end. Note that the money is due before the return is.
- Company tax return
- Twelve months after the period end. £100 immediately, another £100 at three months, then percentage-based penalties.
- First accounts
- Twenty-one months from incorporation, which is why a first year end sneaks up on people who were counting twelve months from trading.
- Your public record
- A late filing is public on your Companies House record for good, and it is the first thing a credit agency and a prospective buyer look at.
Key figures
Every one of these is measured from your own year end.
2026/27 figures. See key tax dates and the calculators for the full picture.
Common year-end mistakes
- The conversation happens after the year end
- Almost everything that reduces a corporation tax bill has to be decided before the period closes. After that, the accounts can only report what happened.
- A balance sheet that is plugged rather than reconciled
- Where a figure is put in to make the accounts balance instead of being agreed to something, every number sitting on top of it is unreliable — including the profit and therefore the tax.
- Stock, work in progress and accruals guessed
- In a product or project business these are among the largest numbers in the accounts, so a guess here changes the tax bill.
- Filed and never discussed
- The accounts show the whole business on two pages once a year. We go through them with you before you sign.
Buying equipment either side of the year end
A £30,000 machine, bought either side of the year end
A company with a 31 March year end and profits in the marginal band, where the annual investment allowance covers the whole cost in the year of purchase.
- Cost of the equipment
- £30,000
- Claimed in full under the annual investment allowance
- £30,000
- Effective corporation tax rate in the £50k–£250k band
- 26.5%
- BOUGHT 28 MARCH — relief in the year just ending
- £7,950
- BOUGHT 4 APRIL — same relief, twelve months later
- £7,950
- Tax deferred by a week’s difference
- 12 months
The relief is identical either way. What changes is when you get it, and a week either side of the year end moves £7,950 of cash by a full year. We hold the planning conversation in month ten so there is time to act on it.
Worked through at 2026/27 rates from our own calculators, which follow gov.uk guidance checked in July 2026. This is an example and your figures will differ.
What people ask about year-end accounts
When are my accounts due?
Nine months after your accounting reference date for a private limited company, and twenty-one months from incorporation for a first set. The corporation tax payment is due at nine months and a day, before the return itself.
What is the difference between the two sets?
A small company can file abridged or filleted accounts at Companies House, which keeps the profit and loss off the public record. The full set, including the profit and loss, goes to HMRC with the tax return. You get both.
Can you take over mid-year?
Yes, and it is the most common way we start. We write to your current accountant for the handover file, and the professional clearance process is routine — see switching to Buzz.
My records are a mess. Is that a problem?
Catching up costs money and it does not stop you joining. We would rather be told up front so the quote is right, and the fix is usually to get the bookkeeping onto software so next year is a different job.
Do I get to talk to someone about them?
Yes. The meeting to go through the accounts is part of the service.
