Confirmation Statement at Companies House: A Plain-English Guide

You set up a limited company, got on with the work, and then a reminder lands telling you a confirmation statement is due at Companies House. You're not sure what it is, whether it's the same as your accounts, or what happens if you ignore it. For a lot of company directors this is the first time they've heard the term, and the reminder makes it sound more serious than it usually is.

Here's the short version. A confirmation statement is a once-a-year check-in with Companies House where you confirm that the public details they hold about your company are still correct. It isn't a financial document, it doesn't ask for your profits, and it usually takes a few minutes if nothing has changed. But it is a legal requirement, and the consequences of never filing one are more serious than the small job itself suggests. This guide explains what it is, when it's due, how to file it, what it costs, and what happens if you miss it.

What is a confirmation statement?

A confirmation statement is a filing every UK limited company and limited liability partnership must send to Companies House at least once a year. Its job is simple: to confirm that the information on the public register about your company is accurate and up to date. It replaced the old annual return back in 2016, and while the name changed, the purpose is much the same.

The statement confirms a defined set of details. These include the company's registered office address, the directors, the company secretary if there is one, the registered email address, the standard industrial classification (SIC) code that describes what the business does, the shareholders, the statement of capital, and the people with significant control. You aren't rewriting all of this from scratch each year. You're confirming it's still right, or flagging where it has changed.

The key thing to understand is that a confirmation statement is a snapshot of who runs and owns the company, not a record of how it performed. It sits alongside your annual accounts and your company tax return as one of the three core filings a limited company has to keep on top of. Each goes to a different place, covers a different thing, and has its own deadline. Confusing them is the single most common reason directors get caught out.

When is a confirmation statement due?

Every company has a confirmation date, sometimes called the review period. This is usually the anniversary of either the date the company was incorporated or the date you filed your last confirmation statement. You then have 14 days from that confirmation date to file the statement. So the window is the 12-month review period, and the deadline is 14 days after it ends.

You can file early if you want to, and many directors do, often pairing it with another piece of admin so it doesn't get forgotten. You can also file more than one confirmation statement in a year, for example if your details change and you want the register updated promptly, although you only pay the annual fee once in each payment period.

The simplest way to never miss it is to sign up for email reminders from Companies House, which are free, and to put the confirmation date in whatever calendar or system you actually look at. The deadline is fixed and doesn't move with your accounting year, which is exactly why people who only think about company admin at accounts time get tripped up. Your accounts deadline and your confirmation statement deadline are usually months apart. If your accountant handles your bookkeeping and company filings together, this is one of the things our accountancy team keeps in view so it never sneaks up on you.

How to file a confirmation statement

Filing is done through the Companies House online service, and for most companies it's quick. You sign in to the service, select your company, and you're shown the details currently held on the register. You then work through them and either confirm each one is still correct or update the ones that have changed.

Most of the information can be confirmed in a few clicks. Two areas need a little more care. The first is people with significant control, usually shortened to PSC. These are the individuals who own or control more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or who otherwise have significant influence over the company. If a PSC has joined, left, or changed since last year, that has to be reflected. The second is the statement of capital and shareholder information, which needs updating if shares have been issued, transferred, or restructured during the year.

If nothing has changed at all, the process really is a matter of confirming the existing record and paying the fee. If something has changed, some updates are made within the confirmation statement itself, while others — such as appointing or removing a director, or changing the registered office — are filed separately and then confirmed as part of the statement. Once submitted, the update appears on the public register, which anyone can view. Getting it right matters because lenders, suppliers and clients sometimes check the register before doing business with you.

What does a confirmation statement cost?

Filing online costs a £34 annual fee, paid to Companies House at the point of submission. The fee covers a 12-month payment period, which means you can file as many confirmation statements as you need within that period for the single fee — useful if your company's details change more than once in a year. Filing the statement on paper costs considerably more, which is one of several reasons most companies file online.

That £34 is the Companies House fee only. If you ask an accountant to prepare and submit the statement on your behalf, there may be a small charge for the work, though for many businesses it's bundled into a wider accountancy or company-secretarial package rather than billed separately. The fee is modest by design, because the point of the confirmation statement isn't to raise money — it's to keep the public register accurate. The real cost of getting it wrong isn't the fee. It's what happens if you don't file at all.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

This is where the confirmation statement is more serious than it first appears. Unlike late annual accounts, there is no automatic financial penalty for filing a confirmation statement late. That leads some directors to assume it doesn't really matter. It does.

Failing to file a confirmation statement is a criminal offence, and the directors can be held personally responsible. More practically, if a company persistently fails to file, Companies House can assume the business is no longer operating and begin the process of striking it off the register. If that runs its course, the company is dissolved. When a company is struck off, it ceases to exist as a legal entity, its bank accounts can be frozen, and any assets it still holds can pass to the Crown — a process known as bona vacantia. Getting a dissolved company restored is possible but slow, costly, and a great deal more hassle than the few minutes the statement would have taken.

There's also a quieter cost. The public register is where banks, lenders, landlords, suppliers and prospective clients check that a company is real, active and properly run. A register showing an overdue confirmation statement signals a business that isn't on top of its basics, which can cost you credibility at exactly the wrong moment. Keeping the filing current is part of looking like a company people can safely deal with.

Confirmation statement vs accounts vs tax return

The fastest way to stay out of trouble is to be clear on which filing is which, because the three core company filings get muddled constantly. A confirmation statement goes to Companies House and confirms who runs and owns the company. Annual accounts also go to Companies House but report the company's finances for the year. A company tax return goes to HMRC and reports taxable profits.

Three filings, two destinations, three separate deadlines. Your confirmation date, your accounts filing deadline and your corporation tax deadlines rarely line up, so treating "company admin" as one annual event is how things slip. Many directors find that having one person or firm hold all three in a single timetable removes the risk entirely. If you're weighing up whether to keep handling filings yourself or hand them over, our accountancy service for small businesses exists precisely so directors can stop carrying these dates in their heads. You can read more about what Companies House actually requires on the official GOV.UK guidance.

A confirmation statement is one of the smallest jobs a company director has and one of the easiest to forget, which is a bad combination given what's at stake if it's never done. Confirm your details once a year, keep your people with significant control and share information accurate, file within 14 days of your confirmation date, and pay the £34. Do that and the public record of your company stays clean and current. If juggling this alongside your accounts and tax return is the part that keeps slipping, it's exactly the kind of thing worth handing to someone who holds all your deadlines in one place, so none of them ever catch you out.