CT600 Tax Return Filing in Buzzard: Prepare and File Your Company Tax Return with HMRC

A CT600 is the HMRC form used to submit a Company Tax Return. It reports your company's Corporation Tax position for an accounting period, including the figures that support that position, and it is filed electronically with HMRC. In practice, the CT600 sits at the centre of CT600 Tax Return Filing: the form itself carries the key figures, while the accompanying accounts and Corporation Tax computation explain how those figures were arrived at.

A Company Tax Return is the submission made to HMRC that reports your company's Corporation Tax position. It is not the same as the statutory accounts filed with Companies House, not a Confirmation Statement, and not a VAT Return. Those are separate obligations, often with different deadlines and different audiences. You can think of it this way: Companies House receives your accounts and confirmation information, HMRC receives your Company Tax Return and Corporation Tax computation, and each has its own purpose.

Being a micro-entity for accounts purposes does not create a separate or different tax return. If your company is within the micro-entity size limits, it still files the same CT600 that other companies use where HMRC requires a Company Tax Return. Whether your particular company needs to file depends on its circumstances — for example, a genuinely dormant company that meets HMRC's conditions may not need to, but you should always check the position for your own company rather than assume. If you are unsure, we can look at your situation and confirm what applies.

Yes. Statutory accounts are prepared under an accounting framework and filed with Companies House. A CT600 is a tax return filed with HMRC. They are connected, because the accounting figures are usually the starting point for the Corporation Tax calculation, but they serve different purposes and are submitted to different bodies. Your accounts show the company's financial performance and position; your Company Tax Return reports the resulting Corporation Tax position after any necessary tax adjustments.

They are related, but they are not the same document. The Corporation Tax computation is the working paper that starts with your accounting profit, applies the relevant tax adjustments, and arrives at your taxable profit and the resulting Corporation Tax position. The CT600 is the return form on which you report that position to HMRC. In most cases the computation is submitted alongside the CT600, so the figures in the return can be traced back to the underlying workings. For CT600 Tax Return Filing, both pieces need to agree with each other and with your accounts.

You usually begin with the profit shown in your accounts and then adjust it for tax purposes. Some income may be treated differently for tax than in the accounts, and some expenses may be disallowed or treated on a different basis, so add-backs and deductions may be required. Depreciation and capital allowances are a common example of why the two figures can diverge, as is the treatment of certain business expenses. The result is your taxable profit, which is then used to work out the Corporation Tax position. Because the adjustments depend on the specific transactions and circumstances of your company, a review of the underlying records is normally needed before the computation is finalised.

In practice, HMRC generally expects the statutory accounts and a Corporation Tax computation to be submitted with the Company Tax Return, because the return figures need to be supported by the underlying accounts. Filing your accounts with Companies House is a separate obligation with its own process, and completing one does not automatically complete the other. It is worth planning your accounts preparation and your CT600 Tax Return Filing together so that the figures are consistent and the return can be submitted with the supporting information HMRC expects.

No. Filing is about reporting the position to HMRC; payment is a separate obligation that only arises if Corporation Tax is actually due. A company might submit a valid Company Tax Return and have nothing to pay, while another company might submit a return showing a liability that needs to be paid separately through the appropriate HMRC channel. It is important to keep the two in mind, because submitting the return does not in itself discharge any amount owed, and any liability should be dealt with on its own timetable.

To prepare a CT600 we typically need your accounting records for the period, your statutory accounts or draft accounts, details of income and expenses, information on capital purchases and disposals, and any other relevant Corporation Tax records such as details of previous losses. The more complete and up-to-date those records are, the smoother the process tends to be. If a return is filed after the relevant deadline, HMRC may apply penalties and interest, and the position can worsen the longer it remains outstanding, so it is best to act as soon as you realise there may be an issue. We can help you gather what is needed, prepare the computation and, where a return is already overdue, work through the next steps with you.