First-year accounts for limited company in Newhaven

First-year accounts for new Newhaven 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 Newhaven businesses: local facts

Newhaven is in the Lewes council area, in the South East region. Lewes has around 4,220 VAT- and PAYE-registered businesses, and 3,805 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 Lewes are professional, scientific and technical services (685), construction (660) and wholesale and retail (480). If you work in professional, scientific and technical services in Newhaven, 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 18% of the local micro-business base.

Zooming in, the ONS neighbourhood area around Newhaven (Lewes 009) has 180 VAT- or PAYE-registered businesses, and 160 of them (89%) are micro businesses.

Lewes ranks 919 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 (660 micro businesses in Lewes), 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 (480 micro businesses in Lewes), 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.