File UK Company Confirmation Statement (Annual Return) In 2023

If you are a UK business owner or about to be one, do you know the principal annual requirement to keep your company ongoing?

It’s a UK company confirmation statement filing, or UK company annual return – an obligation to conform after you register a company in the UK. You don’t want to pay a heavy fine or get your company struck off? Pay careful attention to it.

Taking care of this paperwork while operating a UK business may involve daunting tasks and make you frustrated. Understanding how to file, related deadlines required provisions, and the costs will help you manage the filing work with ease.

Everything you need to know about the UK confirmation statement is compacted in this article. Unpack now!

What is the UK confirmation statement?

You must be confused about a confirmation statement and an annual return. They are actually one.

Before 30th June 2016, companies used UK Annual Return governed by the companies law 2006 for the confirmation. Then it was replaced by a Confirmation Statement on and after 30th June 2016 that was regulated by Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.

A confirmation statement outlines the general information of a company registered in the kingdom. You provide the company information at the date of incorporation, and the statement is to confirm that the information is still correct.

You must maintain the information in the statement every year to the Companies House – the official department responsible for company incorporation management. The department requires companies to file an annual confirmation statement for certain reasons. Particularly, it is to keep the company information up to date and make it easy to administrate.

Now you must be wondering “Do I need to file the UK confirmation statement?’’

The answer is YES if you register your company in the UK. The confirmation statement is obligated for all UK Limited Companies, whether it is a UK private limited company or UK limited liability partnership. It is mandatory even when your company hasn’t traded or has stayed dormant.

Note that your company is still required to file the confirmation statement when there is no change in the company information.

How to file a UK company confirmation statement?

Filing the annual confirmation statement is simple. You can do the filing from your home via Software Filing or WebFiling Services of the Companies House. One thing you must keep in mind is that the director is legally required to do the filing.

Typically, the filing will take you 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Check the information of your company if there are any changes in need

You can look here for the information about your company that you supplied to the Companies House. See carefully if there is any information you need to add or update for the filing.

Below is the checklist of what you need to provide in the confirmation:

• Your company name and its registration number;
• The date when you make the confirmation;
• The major business activities that your company has been engaged in;
• Your company type such as private or public;
• The registered office address of your company;
• The address of Single Alternative Inspection Location (SAIL) – the alternative location where you keep the company records out of the registered office address;
• Details of the company secretary, if applicable;
• Details of people with significant control (PSC);
• Details of all directors; and
• Details of share capital and shareholders (*).

You must state any changes regarding the above information in the filing form.

(*) This applies to companies having share capital and shareholders. The information regarding share capital you must specify in the confirmation is as follows:

• Number of shares, their nominal value, and the amount of paid or unpaid ones;
• Details of each class of share.

Note

If there is no change in the aforementioned information, you don’t need to include it in the filing. Just make a confirmation that your company information and related records are correct and up-to-date.

Step 2: File the annual confirmation statement

When the time comes, the Companies House will send you a notification letter to your registered address with related requirements and dues. All you need to do is download form CS01 from the registrar’s website and fill out the required information. Then you can submit it to the Companies House via WebFiling Services.

You will need a password and authentication code to be able to do the online filing. You won’t have these if this is the first time you do the filing. New filers can start the registration here.

If you aren’t able to file online, you can manually send the form to the address of the Companies House.

Step 3: Submit payment

A confirmation statement will be followed by an annual fee. It will cost you £13 for the online filing. But for physical filing, you must pay £40 to the Companies House.

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When to file the UK confirmation statement?

Your UK company must file the annual confirmation statement at least once a year. But you can always file it to update the information at any time during the review period.

The first review period will be 12 months from the incorporation date. The later ones will be 12 months from the date of the previous statement filing. When you decide to start the filing earlier than the date when the review period ends, the review period of your company will change. The new one will start from the date of the filing.

The payment period is, however, different from the review period. It is still 12 months from the incorporation date and every 12 months after the last annual fee submission. But you can’t change the time frame like the review period. It will remain the same until the end of your company life cycle.

You must file the confirmation statement after 14 days when the review period ends. Note that you just need to pay the annual fee for only the first time you make the statement during the payment period. The amendments after that are free of charge.

example

Assuming you form a UK limited company on 1st Jan 2022, the first review period starts from the formation date and ends on 31st Dec 2022. The first payment period is the same as the review period.

If you file the confirmation statement made up to 31st Dec 2022, you must pay the annual fee at the same time as the filing. Your next review period starts from 1st Jan 2023, and so is the next payment period.

Like mentioned before, you can file the statement at any time during the review period. Assuming you decide to do the filing made up to 31st Aug 2022 instead of 31st Dec 2022 to notify change of share capital. The filing requires the annual fee submission because it’s the first filing. Thus, your next review period starts on 1st Sept 2022 and ends on 31st Aug 2023.

However, the next payment period still starts from 1st Jan 2023.

For the later confirmation statements made up to 31st Dec 2022, you don’t have to submit the annual fee. But after the first filing is made from 1st Jan 2023 to 31st Dec 2022, you will have to submit the fee.

What happens if you fail to submit the company confirmation statement?

You can file the confirmation statement late, but not delivering the statement is counted as a criminal offense.

For not filing the statement, your company will be involved in a monetary penalty. Your company, directors, secretary, and officers may be personally fined up to £5000.

For late confirmation statement filing, your company is not subject to a penalty. Even so, if you don’t do the filing, the Companies House will consider your company as ceasing operations and strike it off.

How to commit to the deadlines?

Keeping track of company annual compliance duties like the UK confirmation statement is important but easy to fail. Other requirements to bear in mind are tax filing, auditing, recordkeeping, and account filing. As being busy running business operations, you may miss the dues for the filing work.

To ensure that you do the filing on time, you can note the due dates in your company calendar. Besides, the Companies House will send you reminders of the related dates and information if you register for an email reminder service.

If you are still worried about missing the deadlines, you can have a third-party to take care of the compliance requirements for your company. Incorporating your UK company with BBCIncorp, we will help you oversee the compliance duties of the annual confirmation statement. We will remind you when the dues are coming.