The dates, and what missing them costs #
Company secretarial work is the most predictable thing in a practice, which is what makes it such a reliable source of avoidable stress. Everything below comes from Companies House and HMRC guidance read on 19 September 2026.
| Obligation | Deadline | If it is late |
|---|---|---|
| First accounts, private company or LLP | 21 months from incorporation, or 3 months from the accounting reference date, whichever is longer | Penalty scale below |
| Subsequent accounts, private company or LLP | 9 months from the end of the accounting reference period | 150 pounds up to a month late, rising to 1,500 pounds over six months |
| Accounts filed late in two successive years | Same dates | Penalty doubled |
| Confirmation statement | At least once a year, up to 14 days after the review period ends | Financial penalty, and the company may be struck off |
| Company Tax Return | 12 months after the end of the accounting period | Penalty for late filing |
| Corporation Tax payment | Usually 9 months and one day after the end of the accounting period | Interest, and it falls before the return is due |
| Identity verification | Legal requirement since 18 November 2025 | Potential prosecution, fines, restrictions and a note on the public register |
Public companies face a steeper scale.
750 pounds
Where the public company scale starts
GOV.UK, Companies House late filing penalties
7,500 pounds
Public company accounts beyond six months
GOV.UK, Companies House late filing penalties
The payment date lands before the filing date #
It is worth pausing on one detail because it catches clients every year. HMRC guidance puts the Corporation Tax payment at 9 months and one day after the end of the accounting period, while the return is not due for 12 months.
Identity verification added a second register to watch #
Companies House guidance states that individuals could verify voluntarily from 8 April 2025 and that verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025, covering directors, equivalents such as members and general partners, directors of overseas companies registered in the UK, people with significant control and authorised corporate service providers.
Non compliance is described as a potential offence, with prosecution, fines, restrictions on being appointed as a new director or registering new companies, and a note against the person's name on the public register.
For a practice this is a per director status, not a per company one, and it has to stay current as boards change. It is covered alongside the rest of the identity work in AML and identity checks in a practice.
Which parts of this run on rules #
Almost all of it.
Runs on rules
- The accounting reference date determines the accounts deadline
- The review period determines the confirmation statement window
- The accounting period determines both Corporation Tax dates
None of those calculations requires an accountant, and none of them changes between clients.
The judgement, and it is real
- What goes into the filing
- Whether the figures are right
- How you handle a client who will not respond in time
What changes is whether anybody has done the calculation for every company on the list, recently, in one place. Chasing signatures and approvals before a hard date is the same problem described in chasing clients for records, with a penalty attached to the end of it.
A note on who is responsible #
Filing obligations sit with the company and its officers, not with the practice, however much of the work the practice does. That distinction matters when a client misses a date, and it is worth being explicit about it in your engagement terms rather than after the penalty notice.
Nothing here is legal or tax advice, and a practice should check current Companies House and HMRC guidance rather than relying on a summary.
What is safe to conclude is narrower: a calendar that can be computed from fields you already hold is not a memory problem, and treating it as one is a choice. For the full year view across taxes, see the practice deadline calendar, and the cost of admin time calculator if you want to put a number on the tracking itself.