Your first-year compliance calendar

Short answer: a new UK company has four recurring obligations — a confirmation statement, annual accounts to Companies House, a Corporation Tax return to HMRC, and the Corporation Tax payment itself. They run on two different clocks, which is why people miss them. Companies House works from your incorporation date. HMRC works from your accounting period.

Here is the whole first year in order.

The one thing to understand first

Your accounting reference date (ARD) is set automatically at incorporation: the last day of the month in which you incorporated, one year later. Incorporate on 14 March 2026 and your first ARD is 31 March 2027.

Almost every other deadline hangs off that date, or off your incorporation date. Write both in your calendar the week you incorporate.

Within the first few weeks

Register for Corporation Tax with HMRC. Within three months of starting to trade. "Starting to trade" is not the same as incorporating — buying stock, advertising, or employing someone can start the clock, whereas a dormant company hasn't started.

Open a business bank account. Not a legal requirement for a company, but a practical necessity: company money is not your money, and mixing them creates problems that are tedious to unpick later.

Register for PAYE before the first payday, if you're paying yourself or anyone else a salary.

Consider VAT. Registration is compulsory once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000. That is a rolling 12-month test, not your accounting year — so it can be triggered mid-year by a good quarter. Voluntary registration below the threshold is sometimes worthwhile if you sell mainly to VAT-registered businesses and want to reclaim input VAT.

Verify your identity. Every director and PSC must now do this. Your personal code is required at incorporation for a new company, so this will usually already be done — but check any co-director or 25%+ shareholder has theirs.

Around month 12: your confirmation statement

Due: within 14 days of the end of your review period. Your first review period runs for 12 months from incorporation.

Fee: £50 online (£110 on paper), covering a 12-month payment period.

The confirmation statement confirms your company details are correct — registered office, directors, PSCs, SIC codes, share capital. It is not accounts and it is not a tax return.

This is now also where identity verification lands. Existing directors provide their personal code as part of the confirmation statement, so an unverified director will hold it up. Check this a month ahead, not on the day.

Filing it is quick. Forgetting it is serious — persistent failure can lead to the company being struck off, and it is an offence.

Around month 21: your first annual accounts

Due at Companies House: 21 months after incorporation for a first set of accounts (or 3 months after your ARD, if that is later).

So a company incorporated 14 March 2026, with an ARD of 31 March 2027, files its first accounts by 14 December 2027.

After the first year the rule simplifies: 9 months after your ARD.

Small companies can usually file abridged or filleted accounts, which show less publicly. That is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.

Late filing penalties are automatic and escalate — they are not discretionary, and "I didn't know" is not a defence.

Corporation Tax: two separate deadlines, in an unhelpful order

This trips up almost every first-time director, because you pay before you file.

Payment due: 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period. Return (CT600) due: 12 months after the end of your accounting period.

For an accounting period ending 31 March 2027: pay by 1 January 2028, file by 31 March 2028.

Which means you need your figures substantially ready three months before the return is technically due. Work back from the payment date, not the filing date.

A worked first year

Company incorporated 14 March 2026. ARD 31 March 2027.

Plus your own Self Assessment return by 31 January following each tax year, if you're taking salary or dividends.

The ongoing obligations nobody diarises

• Keep the register of members and other statutory registers up to date
• Tell Companies House within 14 days of changes to directors, PSCs or registered office
• Maintain a registered email address
• Keep accounting records — generally for six years

The three that actually catch people

1. Corporation Tax payment before the return. Budget for it from month one rather than discovering it in month nine.
2. The confirmation statement. It's cheap, quick and easily forgotten because it feels like nothing — and now it can be blocked by an unverified director.
3. First accounts being 21 months, not 12. The long gap lulls people, then the deadline arrives with nothing prepared.

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