Confirmation Statement Filing in Axbridge — Keep Your Companies House Record Accurate

A confirmation statement is a filing made to Companies House in which a company confirms that the information held about it on the public register is accurate and up to date as at the confirmation date. It is filed as form CS01 and is a recurring requirement: a company will normally need to file one at least once every 12 months, even where nothing about the company has changed during that period. It is worth being clear that a confirmation statement is not a set of statutory accounts, nor is it a Corporation Tax Return or a VAT Return — it is a separate filing with its own purpose.

The requirement is not specific to location. Any company registered in the UK, including companies based in Axbridge, will generally need to file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months, as will limited liability partnerships through the equivalent process. This applies whether the company is trading actively, trading only occasionally, or is dormant. A dormant company still has a public record at Companies House that needs confirming, so dormancy does not usually remove the requirement — although what the company confirms along with the statement can differ from an actively trading business.

A company generally needs to file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months, measured from the date of its last confirmation statement (or from incorporation if none has been filed yet). That 12-month cycle is known as the review period. Importantly, a company can file more than one confirmation statement within a review period if its information changes and it wants to bring the register up to date sooner rather than waiting. It is also important not to confuse this cycle with the company's accounting period, annual accounts deadline or Corporation Tax deadline — they run to their own timetables.

Before a confirmation statement is filed, it is worth checking the key details Companies House holds: the registered office address, the directors and any company secretary (including their service addresses), the shareholders and statement of capital, the people with significant control and the nature of their control, and the SIC codes describing the company's activities. If any of those details are wrong or out of date, the appropriate change generally needs to be reported to Companies House separately rather than simply being noted on the confirmation statement. Part of the value of using a professional service is having those details reviewed with you before the statement is submitted.

In most cases, yes. Being dormant or not actively trading does not normally remove the requirement to file a confirmation statement, because Companies House still holds a record for the company that needs to be confirmed each review period. Dormant companies do, however, have different obligations in other areas — for example, they may qualify to file different or reduced accounts, and their Corporation Tax position can differ. Those points sit outside the confirmation statement itself, so it is worth taking advice on your specific circumstances rather than assuming one filing covers everything.

A confirmation statement and annual accounts serve completely different purposes. The confirmation statement confirms that the information on the public register — directors, shareholders, registered office, PSCs and similar details — is accurate. Annual accounts, by contrast, report the company's financial position and performance for an accounting period and are filed separately with Companies House. The confirmation statement does not contain profit and loss figures or a balance sheet, and filing one does not satisfy the requirement to file accounts. Both are separate obligations that a company may need to meet.

No. A confirmation statement is filed with Companies House and confirms company information held on the public register. A Corporation Tax Return (CT600) is filed with HMRC and reports the company's taxable profits and tax position for an accounting period. They go to different bodies, cover different things and follow different deadlines, and filing one has no effect on the other. The same distinction applies to VAT Returns, which are also a separate HMRC obligation where the company is VAT registered.

Failing to file a confirmation statement is not something to ignore. Companies House can take action against a company that does not file when required, and continued non-filing can ultimately put the company at risk of being struck off the register. Because the exact consequences depend on the company's circumstances and how long the filing has been outstanding, the safest approach is to deal with it promptly — either by filing yourself or by asking a professional service to bring the record up to date. Acting early is always simpler than fixing a problem later.