Limited Company FAQ's

Not filing your confirmation statements, annual returns or accounts is a criminal offence - and directors could be personally fined in the criminal courts.

Failure to deliver accounts on time is a criminal offence. In addition, the law imposes a civil penalty for late filing of accounts on the company. The amount of the penalty depends on how late the accounts arrive and whether the company is private or public at the date of the balance sheet.

Your accounting reference date (often abbreviated as ‘ARD’) is the final day of your company’s financial year – and the date that your annual accounts must be made up to. It is automatically set by Companies House as the anniversary of the last day of the month of company incorporation.

Unless you are filing your company’s first accounts, the time normally allowed for delivering accounts to Companies House is 9 months from the accounting reference date.

At end of the financial year, your private limited company must file accounts every year at Companies House. Company accounts are documents prepared at the end of a financial year which show how a company has performed over the accounting period. All limited companies must deliver accounts to Companies House. It does not matter whether you've been successful, breaking even, not trading, or dormant.

As well as your responsibilities as a director to Companies House, you must perform a set of 7 duties under the Companies Act 2006. These still apply even if you’re not active in your role as director, someone else tells you what to do, you act as a director but have not been formally appointed or you control a board of directors without being on it.

As a director, you’re legally responsible for running the company and making sure information is sent to Companies House. You also have general duties you must adhere to in line with the Companies House 2006.

You must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, this includes every company, even those that are dormant and non-trading. It confirms the information Companies House hold about your company is up to date. Before filing your confirmation statement, you should check your company details are correct and you must update your records if any information is incorrect or out of date.

No, you do not need a company secretary for a private limited company. Some companies use them to take on some of the director’s responsibilities. Even if you have a company secretary, the directors are legally responsible for the company.

Yes, a director must be 16 or over and not previously been disqualified from being a director. Your company must always have at least one director. Directors are legally responsible for running the company and making sure company accounts and reports are properly prepared.