The company year-end accounts process, step by step

Closing the books

Year end starts with finishing the bookkeeping: reconcile every bank account, chase and record outstanding invoices, post accruals and prepayments, and count stock. Clean books here make everything downstream faster and cheaper.

Preparing the statutory accounts

From the closed books, your accountant (or software) prepares the statutory accounts — the profit and loss, balance sheet and notes, in the format company law requires. Smaller companies can file abridged or filleted accounts, but the full set still feeds the tax return.

The tax computation

Statutory accounts are adjusted into a taxable profit: add back depreciation, apply capital allowances, disallow non-deductible costs, apply reliefs. This produces the corporation-tax figure for the CT600.

Filing and paying

Accounts are due at Companies House nine months after year end; the CT600 is due to HMRC twelve months after, but the tax is payable nine months and a day after. Miss the Companies House deadline and automatic penalties apply immediately — see how to file.

Funding the tax that follows

Year end crystallises the tax bill months after the profit was earned. Reserve for it, and if cash is tight when it falls due, short-term finance bridges it.

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