What is a confirmation statement?

A confirmation statement (form CS01) is an annual filing that every UK limited company and LLP must make to Companies House. It confirms that the key details on the public register, your registered office, directors, People with Significant Control, shareholders, share capital and SIC codes, are correct and up to date. It replaced the old annual return in 2016. It is a confirmation, not a tax return and not your accounts: it simply tells Companies House the public record is accurate, or lets you update it if something has changed.

No, they are two separate filings. Your annual accounts report the company’s finances and go to both Companies House and HMRC. The confirmation statement is a non-financial snapshot of who runs and owns the company and where it is based, and goes only to Companies House. Every company has to file both, on their own deadlines, and missing either causes problems. We handle both so they are filed correctly and on time.

There is an annual Companies House fee to file the statement, and filing online is cheaper than on paper (online is around £50 since the February 2026 increase, paper is more). You pay the fee once in a 12-month payment period, even if you file more than one statement in that time. If you ask an accountant to handle it, there may be a small charge for preparing and submitting it, which for our clients is wrapped into the company secretarial service.

It is a criminal offence not to file. Companies House can prosecute the directors, who can be fined, and the company can ultimately be struck off the register, which means it stops existing and its assets can pass to the Crown. Even before that, an overdue confirmation statement shows on the public record and can affect your ability to get credit or work with certain clients. Filing on time avoids all of this, which is exactly why many companies have their accountant track and file it.

No, the directors can file it themselves through Companies House, and the form itself is fairly simple if nothing has changed. Where an accountant helps is keeping track of the deadline so it is never missed, making sure any changes (new directors, share transfers, PSC updates) are correctly recorded first, and dealing with the more involved parts such as share capital. For most of our clients it is part of the company secretarial service, so it is simply handled.

Each company has a confirmation date (usually the anniversary of incorporation or of your last statement), and you have 14 days from that date to file. You must file at least once every 12 months, even if nothing has changed and even if the company is dormant. It is easy to lose track of the date, which is why we diarise it for clients and file in good time rather than leaving it to the deadline.