CT600 Tax Return Filing in Ruislip — Prepare and File Your Company Tax Return with HMRC

A CT600 is the form HMRC uses for a Company Tax Return, also referred to as a Corporation Tax Return. It reports the company's income, gains, deductions and reliefs for an accounting period and sets out the resulting Corporation Tax position. It is more than a set of figures: the return includes declarations and other company information, and in most cases it needs to be supported by a Corporation Tax computation and by accounts prepared in the format HMRC expects. CT600 Tax Return Filing means preparing that return properly and submitting it to HMRC through the relevant HMRC service.

A UK company will generally need to file a Company Tax Return if HMRC has issued it with a notice to file, or if it is within the charge to Corporation Tax — for example because it is trading, receiving rental or investment income, or realising chargeable gains. A company that has never received a notice to file may still need to tell HMRC that it has started to trade. Whether CT600 Tax Return Filing applies to a particular company therefore depends on its own circumstances and on any notices HMRC has issued, so it is worth checking rather than assuming either way.

Statutory accounts are prepared for the company's shareholders and filed at Companies House under the Companies Act framework. A CT600 is a tax return filed with HMRC. They overlap in the figures they use but serve different purposes: the accounts show the company's financial position and performance, while the CT600 reports the Corporation Tax position for the accounting period. Because company law accounting rules and tax rules are not identical, the numbers on the CT600 will not always match the figures in the filed accounts, and completing one filing does not discharge the other.

No. The Corporation Tax computation is the working paper that starts with the accounting profit in the accounts and adjusts it to arrive at taxable profit — adding back expenditure that is not allowable for tax, deducting items such as capital allowances where they are available, and dealing with losses, reliefs and other adjustments relevant to the company. The CT600 is the return that reports the outcome, along with the supporting company information. In practice the two go hand in hand: CT600 Tax Return Filing is far easier to get right when a properly prepared computation sits behind it.

It can do, yes. Preparing micro-entity accounts is an accounting decision about how the accounts are drawn up and filed; it does not take the company outside the Corporation Tax system. If a micro-entity company is within the charge to Corporation Tax, or HMRC has issued a notice to file, CT600 Tax Return Filing will normally be required. That said, not every micro-entity ends up with a Corporation Tax liability — it depends on the company's taxable profit and the deductions and reliefs available to it. Filing the return and paying any Corporation Tax that is due are separate obligations with separate HMRC processes.

Typically the company's accounting records and finalised accounts for the period, details of turnover and expenses, information on capital purchases and disposals, any losses brought forward or carried back, details of other companies where that is relevant to the company's position, and any earlier correspondence from HMRC about the company. The exact accounting period covered by the return also needs to be confirmed, because a company's Corporation Tax accounting period does not always line up neatly with its financial year. Clean, complete records make CT600 Tax Return Filing considerably smoother and reduce the number of follow-up queries later on.

It begins with the profit shown in the accounts and then adjusts it for tax purposes. Expenditure that is not allowable for tax is added back; income that is taxable but not included in the accounts profit is brought in; capital allowances may be claimed in place of depreciation; and losses, reliefs and other adjustments are applied where the company's circumstances allow. The result is the taxable profit on which the Corporation Tax liability is calculated. This is why the taxable profit reported on a CT600 can differ from the accounting profit in the statutory accounts, even for a very small company.

They are separate processes, handled through separate HMRC systems and with their own dates. Submitting a Company Tax Return reports the position and tells HMRC what is due. Paying Corporation Tax is a payment to HMRC, and depending on the company's circumstances the payment may fall due before or independently of the filing date. Filing the return does not itself settle the liability, and paying does not replace the need to file. Keeping both in view helps you avoid unnecessary surprises.