Guidance

Check if you can use the HMRC Corporation Tax online filing service

Find out if you can use the free online filing service to file your Company Tax Return with HMRC and accounts with Companies House.

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
3 January 2007
Last updated
1 April 2022 — See all updates

Overview

If you are an unrepresented company with straightforward tax affairs, you can use the free HMRC online service to:

  • send your Company Tax Return to HMRC
  • send your accounts and computations to HMRC in the correct iXBRL format
  • file your accounts to Companies House
  • send your Company Tax Return to HMRC and accounts to Companies House at the same time

Before you use the HMRC online service

Check you can:

You will need to have prepared your company’s annual accounts. They must be ‘balanced’, so your total assets should match what you owe. Unincorporated associations (like sports clubs) and charities, can only upload a PDF copy of their accounts to HMRC.

You’ll also need your:

File your Company Tax Return with HMRC

You can use the HMRC online service to file your company, charity or association’s:

  • Company Tax Return (CT600) for Corporation Tax
  • supplementary return pages CT600A, CT600E and CT600J
  • statutory company accounts
  • Corporation Tax computations
  • other attachments (in PDF format) to support your return

The service will:

  • help you work out your profit or loss adjusted for tax purposes
  • automatically complete most of the form CT600 Company Tax Return for you

You’ll be able to report:

  • gross income from property up to £5,200 (expenses should not be greater than income)
  • income up to £1,000 that does not come from your organisation’s main trade
  • capital allowances and balancing charges for plant and machinery in the main pool
  • Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) up to £200,000
  • low emission cars
  • trading losses brought forward, set against profits in the same period or carried back from a later period
  • share dividends
  • called up share capital not paid (micro entity accounts only)

Companies that can file a Company Tax Return with the HMRC online service

You can use the service if:

  • your accounting period starts after 31 March 2012
  • you are a charity and your turnover is up to £6.5 million per year
  • a company whose turnover is up to £632,000 per year and is either a:
    • limited company
    • community amateur sports club
    • members club or other unincorporated organisation
    • community interest company

You must:

  • have income from the profits of a single UK trade
  • only need to make adjustments for:
    • depreciation
    • disallowable entertaining
    • donations
    • legal and professional fees
    • net losses on the sale of fixed assets
    • penalties and fines
    • unpaid employees’ remuneration

Companies that cannot use the service

You cannot use the service if your company is:

  • in liquidation or receivership
  • not registered in the UK
  • part of a group
  • an insurance company, not including independent insurance brokers
  • an investment company
  • a credit union
  • a commercial property management company
  • a mutual concern

You also cannot use the service if your company has had more than 12 company directors at any one time in the return period, or:

  • your accounts need an audit or have been audited
  • the Corporation Tax accounting period for the return is covered by more than one set of statutory accounts
  • your company pays its Corporation Tax in instalments
  • you need to claim a repayment of a loan to a participator (for example, a director’s loan) more than 9 months after the end of the accounting period
  • you need to report:
    • adjustments for something reported in a previous year
    • capital allowances (except for specific plant and machinery, AIA and low emission cars)
    • chargeable gains or losses
    • complex loan-relationship entries
    • contingent assets
    • financial instruments
    • foreign currency transactions
    • foreign trade income
    • income or expenditure from investment assets
    • leased cars
    • non-trading income (except interest received)
    • research and development costs
    • restructuring costs
    • share-based payments
    • share premium
    • income and gains from mutual trading activity
  • called up share capital not paid in your full accounts
  • spent more than £200,000 on assets on which you want to claim the annual investment allowance
  • decided to claim the Freeport enhanced capital allowance
  • decided to claim the Freeport enhanced structures and buildings allowance
  • decided to claim the 50% special rate allowance

If you cannot file a Company Tax Return using the HMRC online service

You can use commercial software to send your Company Tax Return to HMRC.

File your company accounts with Companies House separately

If your company is not a charitable organisation or a community interest company, you can use the HMRC online service to send your accounts to Companies House.

Your turnover must be:

  • £10.2 million or less per year for full accounts or abridged accounts
  • £632,000 or less per year for micro-entity accounts

You can use the service to report:

  • research and development costs
  • income over £1,000 that does not come from your organisation’s main trade
  • non-trading income (except interest received)
  • gross income from property over £5,200
  • income from property where expenses are greater than income
  • complex loan relationships
  • leased cars

You cannot report:

  • for more than 12 directors at any one time
  • adjustments for something reported in a previous year
  • called up share capital not paid in your full accounts
  • contingent assets
  • financial instruments
  • foreign currency transactions
  • income or expenditure from investment assets
  • restructuring costs
  • share-based payments
  • share premium

File your Company Tax Return with HMRC and your accounts with Companies House at the same time

You can use the HMRC online service to file your Company Tax Return with HMRC and accounts with Companies House at the same time, if your:

  • company’s turnover is up to £632,000 per year
  • HMRC and Companies House accounting periods cover exactly the same dates

If your HMRC and Companies House accounting periods are different you will need to contact HMRC to ask to change your HMRC accounting period, so it’s the same as your Companies House one.

For example, if your company’s HMRC accounting period is from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 and your company’s Companies House accounting period is 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 you will need to request an accounting period change to file your return and accounts at the same time.

Updates to this page

Published 3 January 2007
Last updated 1 April 2022 + show all updates

  1. Information on companies that cannot use the service has been updated.

  2. More information to the 'File your company accounts with Companies House separately' section has been added.

  3. The section 'Companies that cannot use the service' has been updated.

  4. Information about the Annual Investment Allowance has been updated.

  5. What information you can report in the 'File your Company Tax Return with HMRC' and 'Companies that cannot use service' sections has been updated.

  6. More information about the types of companies that can use the online service has been added.

  7. The 'Who can't use this service' section has been updated.

  8. This guide has updates on HMRC's free online service for filing Company Tax returns.

  9. Information regarding HMRC’s free filing services has been updated.

  10. HM Revenue and Customs' free filing services paragraph added to the page.

  11. First published.

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