What Is a Confirmation Statement and When Is It Due?

Every UK limited company and LLP must file a confirmation statement with Companies House at least once every 12 months. Here is what it contains, when it is due, and what happens if it is missed.

What is a confirmation statement?

A confirmation statement (previously called an annual return) is a document that confirms a company's key information is up to date on the Companies House public register. It includes:

• Registered office address
• Directors and company secretary details
• Shareholders and share capital (for limited companies)
• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code
• Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register

It does not contain financial information — that is covered by the annual accounts filing. The filing fee is £34 online (or £62 by paper), payable to Companies House each time the statement is filed.

When is it due?

The confirmation statement is due within 14 days of the anniversary of either:

• The company's incorporation date, or
• The date of the last confirmation statement filed

This means the due date is not the same for every company and changes each time a filing is made. A company incorporated on 15 March has a confirmation statement due by 29 March each year (15 March + 14 days).

Companies House sends a reminder email to the registered email address, but this typically arrives on or close to the due date — not 30 days in advance when there is still comfortable time to act.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

Unlike late annual accounts, there is no automatic financial penalty for a late confirmation statement. However, Companies House can begin compulsory strike-off proceedings if the company persistently fails to file. A struck-off company's assets vest in the Crown, and directors can face disqualification proceedings. For the full timeline, see Confirmation statement overdue: what happens next.

In practice, the reputational and legal consequences of a client being struck off — even temporarily — far outweigh the time cost of filing the confirmation statement on time.

How to track confirmation statement deadlines across a client list

For a practice with 20–80 LTD clients, the challenge is that every company has a different due date. A spreadsheet with manual entry works until someone makes an error or forgets to update it after a filing is made.

The most reliable approach is automated monitoring: a tool that reads the Companies House public register directly, knows each client's actual due date, and alerts you in advance — without you needing to maintain any spreadsheet.