First-year accounts for limited company in Handcross

First-year accounts for new Handcross companies

Your first accounts normally cover a little over twelve months, running from the day you incorporated to your accounting reference date, and the period can never be longer than 18 months. For most companies the first accounts are due 21 months after incorporation. You must also register for Corporation Tax within three months of starting to trade.

First company accounts for Handcross businesses: local facts

Handcross is in the Mid Sussex council area, in the South East region. Mid Sussex has around 7,350 VAT- and PAYE-registered businesses, and 6,585 of them, about 90%, have fewer than ten employees (ONS UK Business Counts, 2026). That is the group the micro-entity rules were written for.

The largest groups of micro businesses in Mid Sussex are professional, scientific and technical services (1,390), construction (1,105) and wholesale and retail (765). If you work in professional, scientific and technical services in Handcross, fee income, work in progress at the year end and how directors are paid are the key decisions, so we plan these with you before the accounts are finalised. That puts professional, scientific and technical services at 21% of the local micro-business base.

Zooming in, the ONS neighbourhood area around Handcross (Mid Sussex 007) has 585 VAT- or PAYE-registered businesses, and 530 of them (91%) are micro businesses.

Mid Sussex ranks 553 of the 1105 areas we serve by number of micro businesses, and its micro share of 90% is in line with the 89% average across them. In construction (1,105 micro businesses in Mid Sussex), Construction Industry Scheme deductions, retentions and stage payments can distort profit, so we reconcile your CIS statements before the accounts are prepared. In wholesale and retail (765 micro businesses in Mid Sussex), closing stock and the VAT treatment of different product lines are the usual pressure points, so we value stock carefully and check your VAT records.