CT600 Tax Return Filing in Lowestoft: Prepare and Submit Your Company Tax Return to HMRC

The CT600 is the name of the Company Tax Return form used to report a company's Corporation Tax position to HMRC. It sets out the company's period of account, its turnover and other figures for the period, the tax calculation, and any reliefs or allowances being claimed, and it is submitted electronically to HMRC. The CT600 is a tax document — it is not a set of accounts, and it is not filed at Companies House.

A company generally needs to file a Company Tax Return when HMRC has issued a notice to deliver one, or when the company has a Corporation Tax liability or other matters to report for an accounting period. Because this depends on the company's own circumstances and on whether HMRC has asked for a return, the precise position varies from company to company. If you are unsure whether a return is due for your company, it is worth checking before the period in question passes, as the obligation can exist even where no tax ends up being payable.

No — they are two separate documents with two separate purposes and two separate recipients. The statutory accounts are prepared under an accounting framework and filed at Companies House as part of the public record, while the CT600 is a tax return submitted to HMRC. The two are usually built from the same bookkeeping, so the figures should tell a consistent story, but they are prepared for different reasons and a CT600 filing does not satisfy the Companies House obligation, just as filing accounts does not satisfy the Corporation Tax obligation.

A micro-entity company is simply a company that qualifies to prepare its accounts under a simplified framework. That accounting choice does not by itself decide whether a CT600 is due — the question is whether the company has Corporation Tax obligations and whether HMRC requires a return. Plenty of micro-entity companies do need to prepare and file a Company Tax Return, and where they do, they use the same CT600 as any other company. Equally, not every micro-entity will have Corporation Tax to pay, and filing the return is a separate matter from paying any liability.

The two filings are separate obligations with separate routes. Preparing a CT600 does not in itself remove the requirement to prepare and file statutory accounts, and filing accounts does not remove the requirement to file a Company Tax Return where one is due. In practice, the accounts and the tax return are usually prepared together because the accounts figures are the starting point for the tax calculation. If either obligation is outstanding, it should be dealt with on its own terms rather than assumed to be covered by the other filing.

Accounting profit is what the accounts show after applying the relevant accounting framework, while taxable profit is what the tax rules produce — and the two are not automatically the same. The Corporation Tax computation starts with the accounting profit and then applies adjustments: for example, adding back expenditure that is not allowable for tax, or treating income and expenses in the period the tax rules require. The result is the taxable profit, and it is that figure, together with any reliefs or allowances available to the company, that feeds into the Corporation Tax liability shown on the CT600.

No. Filing the CT600 is the reporting step — telling HMRC what the company's position is for the period. Paying Corporation Tax is a separate step, and the amount due (if any) is worked out from the tax calculation. A company can file a return showing nothing payable, and a company can have a liability to pay that is not discharged simply by submitting the return. Keeping the two distinct helps avoid the common mistake of assuming that submitting the CT600 settles the tax.

Typically you will need the company's accounting records and completed accounts for the period, details of income and expenditure, the fixed asset and capital allowance position, any earlier periods' losses or reliefs being carried forward, and the company's registration details for HMRC. From that information, the tax adjustments can be worked through and the Corporation Tax computation produced. If records are incomplete, the sensible starting point is to tidy them up first, since the quality of the CT600 depends on the quality of the figures behind it.

Yes — a company can appoint an agent to prepare and submit its Company Tax Return to HMRC, and that is exactly what professional CT600 Tax Return Filing involves. The agent needs the right authorisation in place to file on the company's behalf, and the company remains responsible for the accuracy of the information it provides and for meeting its own obligations. Working with someone who handles CT600 filings regularly can make the process much smoother, particularly where tax adjustments or losses need careful treatment.