Annual Accounts for Harrow small businesses — matched to a specialist.
Statutory accounts and a CT600 land on every Harrow limited company once a year — and the window for both starts closing the day after year-end.
Every Harrow limited company has to file statutory accounts with Companies House and a CT600 tax return with HMRC once a year. The specialist we match you with prepares and files both — reconciling your bookkeeping, applying the correct FRS 102 or FRS 105 standard for your company size, and making sure everything lands inside the deadlines. The match is free and there's no obligation to proceed once you've seen the quote.
How the work actually breaks down.
Annual accounts are not a single document but a coordinated filing programme. The accountant first reconciles your trial balance — checking that the bookkeeping figures match the underlying bank, sales, and supplier records. Where the bookkeeping is patchy, this stage alone can take a week. Once the trial balance is clean, the accountant decides which financial reporting standard applies. A company that meets two of the three FRS 105 micro-entity thresholds (turnover ≤ £632,000, balance sheet ≤ £316,000, employees ≤ 10) can file the abbreviated FRS 105 micro-entity accounts; everything above that and below the small-company ceiling files under FRS 102 Section 1A. The choice affects what gets disclosed publicly at Companies House — micro-entity accounts show only a stripped-down balance sheet, while small-company accounts under Section 1A disclose more.
After the framework is settled, the statutory accounts are drafted: a profit and loss account, a balance sheet, and the disclosure notes the chosen standard requires. Companies House gets the accounts via its iXBRL filing service, tagged so HMRC can read the same numbers electronically. HMRC then receives the CT600 corporation tax return, which is computed off the accounts but adjusted for tax-allowable items — depreciation is added back and replaced with capital allowances, entertaining is disallowed, dividends to shareholders aren't deductible, R&D claims are layered on top if they apply. The CT600 also reports any losses being carried forward or back, the dividends paid in the period, and the company's marginal-rate band for the new tiered corporation tax regime (19% up to £50k profit, 25% above £250k, taper between).
Corporation tax itself is due nine months and one day after the accounting reference date — a date the accountant will flag during the engagement so you don't miss it. Tax is paid separately from the CT600 filing, usually via Faster Payments or BACS using the company's reference number. Most Harrow limited companies pay in a single instalment, but if your taxable profits exceed £1.5m (£10m for very large companies), you fall into the quarterly instalment regime and the rhythm changes — your second-year quarterly payments are based on prior-year profits and the accountant has to forecast taxable income to set the right amount.
The final stage is the review and filing meeting. A good Harrow accountant won't just fire the accounts off — they'll walk you through what the figures show: gross margin trend, salary-vs-dividend extraction efficiency, retained earnings, and any tax-planning levers worth pulling before next year-end (extending capital expenditure, accelerating pension contributions, declaring a final dividend). Even on a micro-entity engagement, this conversation is where most of the value lands. The compliance filing is mechanical; the conversation about what the numbers mean is where the engagement justifies its fee.
Companies House confirmation statement is a separate filing but usually bundled into the annual accounts engagement. It updates the public register with the company's directors, registered office, share structure, and PSC (people with significant control) details. The fee is small (£13 online) but missing it eventually leads to strike-off proceedings, so most accountants handle it as a matter of course alongside the accounts.
Where the standard playbook doesn't apply.
Late filings change the engagement substantially. Companies House levies an automatic civil penalty: £150 for filings up to a month late, £375 up to three months, £750 up to six months, £1,500 if six-plus months late — and these double if your previous year's filing was also late. The accountant can't appeal these penalties unless the cause is exceptional (death of a director, fire destroying records); most appeals fail. If the company missed multiple years, Companies House may have already started strike-off proceedings, which means the accountant has to file a Discontinuance application alongside the late accounts to prevent dissolution. This work is doable but adds urgency and complexity — engagements at this stage need a same-week match, not a leisurely quote-comparison.
Going from sole trader to limited company in the middle of a year creates a 'stub period' that needs careful handling. The sole-trader business files a final self-assessment covering trading up to the cessation date, and the new limited company files its first accounts from the date of incorporation. Goodwill on incorporation can sometimes be claimed as an intangible asset on the company balance sheet, but the rules tightened materially in 2015 — relief is only available where the goodwill was genuinely acquired (not internally generated) and the trader's business pre-dated April 2002. An accountant who handles a lot of Harrow incorporations will know the current rules; one who doesn't might create a goodwill balance that HMRC will eventually challenge.
Group structures introduce consolidation rules. A small group meeting two of three thresholds (£10.2m turnover, £5.1m balance sheet, 50 employees) is exempt from preparing consolidated accounts, but the threshold is per-group not per-company. Once a Harrow business has incorporated a subsidiary or holding company — common when extracting a property portfolio out of the trading company, for example — the accountant has to compute group thresholds first to confirm the small-group exemption still applies. If the exemption is lost, consolidated accounts under FRS 102 are required, which means eliminating intra-group transactions and balances and presenting the group as a single economic entity. The fee step-up for consolidation is significant — typically 50-100% on top of standalone accounts work.
Dormant companies file a different set: short-form accounts (DCA) showing only a balance sheet with the called-up share capital, plus a confirmation statement. The fee is low and the engagement is light, but the company must genuinely be dormant — no transactions other than payment of share capital, filing fees, and director-fees-paid-back-as-dividends. A dormant company that paid even a single supplier or invoiced a single customer during the year is no longer dormant for filing purposes and must file full small-company accounts. Many Harrow dormant-company filers get this wrong and need to refile when HMRC notices the discrepancy.
How a real Harrow engagement actually plays out.
Micro-entity contractor — three months out from deadline
A Harrow IT contractor operating through a personal service company. Turnover £85k, salary £12,570, dividends drawn quarterly, FreeAgent bookkeeping kept up-to-date. Year-end 31 March, deadline 31 December. The engagement is straightforward: trial balance reviewed in a single afternoon, FRS 105 micro-entity accounts drafted in two days, CT600 with marginal-rate corporation tax calculated, dividends documented, confirmation statement filed alongside. The whole engagement takes about ten working days from start to filing. The review call covers whether to extend the year-end to maximise the lower-rate corporation tax band, whether the salary-vs-dividend split is still optimal post-NIC changes, and whether to accelerate any planned equipment purchases before year-end to claim AIA.
Small limited company — two years of unfiled accounts
A Harrow Town Centre retailer with two years of unreconciled bookkeeping in spreadsheets, both prior accounts unfiled, and a strike-off notice from Companies House. Turnover ~£250k, two employees, weekly cash takings. The accountant we matched them with handled the file in two stages: first, a same-week Discontinuance application to halt strike-off; second, a six-week clean-up engagement reconciling the two prior years against bank statements, EPOS exports, and supplier invoices. Both years filed within seven weeks. Companies House late penalties came to £3,000 (two consecutive years × £1,500). HMRC corporation tax for the two years plus interest agreed via a Time-to-Pay arrangement. Engagement fee for the rescue: roughly four times a clean year-end fee, but materially less than the alternative cost of dissolution and re-incorporation.
Dormant holding company — minimal-fee compliance
A Harrow property investor with a personal trading company plus a dormant holding company set up for a future restructure. The holding company has £1,000 share capital paid in and no other transactions. Annual accounts engagement is short-form DCA accounts plus a confirmation statement. Fee is in the £150-300 range for the year. The conversation is mostly about whether to keep the dormant company live (cheap insurance for a future restructure) or dissolve it (saves the annual fee). For most Harrow clients in this position, the holding company stays dormant until the restructure actually happens.
The work a matched specialist actually takes off your desk.
Scope varies between accountants in the network, but this is the common baseline you can expect from a annual accounts engagement.
- Year-end reconciliation against your bookkeeping records
- Statutory accounts prepared under FRS 102 or FRS 105 (whichever applies)
- Companies House filing (micro-entity, small, or full set)
- CT600 corporation tax return prepared and filed with HMRC
- Directors' report where required
- Review meeting before filing so you understand the numbers
A good fit if you're one of these.
Active limited companies filing their first set of accounts
Established limited companies wanting a more responsive accountant
Dormant companies needing a clean compliance filing
Contractors operating through a personal service company
Businesses that have recently incorporated from sole trader
We don't publish fixed £/month tables, and here's why.
Annual accounts fees depend on company size, turnover, and the state of your bookkeeping — a micro-entity with clean records costs far less than a small company with unreconciled books. Harrow accountants in our network typically quote a fixed annual fee once they've seen your situation. We won't quote a figure on this page because that would be misleading; the accountant will.
Questions we actually get asked.
When do annual accounts have to be filed?
What happens if I miss the deadline?
My bookkeeping is messy — will that be a problem?
Can a Harrow accountant file accounts for a dormant company?
Do I need to be based in Harrow specifically?
Can the same accountant do my self-assessment as a director?
Often paired with annual accounts.
Ready for a annual accounts specialist? Get matched.
Tell us your situation in a three-minute form. A qualified Harrow accountant who works with businesses like yours will be in touch within 48 hours.