Running a limited company: your responsibilities

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Company and accounting records

You must keep:

  • records about the company itself
  • financial and accounting records

You can hire a professional (for example, an accountant) to help with your tax.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) may check your records with a compliance check to make sure you’re paying the right amount of tax.

Records about the company

You must keep details of:

  • directors, shareholders and company secretaries
  • the results of any shareholder votes and resolutions
  • promises for the company to repay loans at a specific date in the future (‘debentures’) and who they must be paid back to
  • promises the company makes for payments if something goes wrong and it’s the company’s fault (‘indemnities’)
  • transactions when someone buys shares in the company
  • loans or mortgages secured against the company’s assets

You must tell Companies House if you keep the records somewhere other than the company’s registered office address.

Register of ‘people with significant control’

You must also keep a register of ‘people with significant control’ (PSC). Your PSC register must include details of anyone who:

  • has more than 25% shares or voting rights in your company
  • can appoint or remove a majority of directors
  • can influence or control your company or trust

You still need to keep a record if there are no people with significant control.

Read more guidance on keeping a PSC register if your company’s ownership and control is not simple.

Accounting records

You must keep accounting records that include:

  • all money received and spent by the company, including grants and payments from coronavirus (COVID-19) support schemes
  • details of assets owned by the company
  • debts the company owes or is owed
  • stock the company owns at the end of the financial year
  • the stocktakings you used to work out the stock figure
  • all goods bought and sold
  • who you bought and sold them to and from (unless you run a retail business)

You must also keep any other financial records, information and calculations you need to prepare and file your annual accounts and Company Tax Return. This includes records of:

  • all money spent by the company, for example receipts, petty cash books, orders and delivery notes
  • all money received by the company, for example invoices, contracts, sales books and till rolls
  • any other relevant documents, for example bank statements and correspondence

You can be fined £3,000 by HMRC or disqualified as a company director if you do not keep accounting records.

How long to keep records

You must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer if:

  • they show a transaction that covers more than one of the company’s accounting periods
  • the company has bought something that it expects to last more than 6 years, like equipment or machinery
  • you sent your Company Tax Return late
  • HMRC has started a compliance check into your Company Tax Return

If your records are lost, stolen or destroyed

If you cannot replace your records after they were lost, stolen or destroyed you must:

View a printable version of the whole guide

Part of Set up a limited company: step by step

  1. Step 1 Check if setting up a limited company is right for you

    1. Check what a private limited company is

    How you set up your business depends on what sort of work you do. It can also affect the way you pay tax and get funding.

    Check if you should set up as one of the following instead:

    1. Get help deciding how to set up your business

  2. Step 2 Choose a name

    1. Check the rules for company names
    2. Check if the name you want is available
    3. Check existing trade marks

  3. Step 3 Choose directors and a company secretary

    You must appoint a director but you do not have to appoint a company secretary.

    1. Find out what directors are responsible for
    2. Check who can be a director or company secretary

  4. Step 4 Decide who the shareholders or guarantors are

    You need at least one shareholder or guarantor, who can be a director.

    1. Check if you’ll need to issue shares or set a 'guaranteed amount'
    2. Find out how dividends from shares are taxed

  5. and Identify people with significant control (PSC) over your company

    For example, anyone with voting rights or more than 25% of the shares.

    1. Find out what counts as a PSC

  6. Step 5 Prepare documents agreeing how to run your company

    You need to prepare a 'memorandum of association' and 'articles of association'.

    1. Find out how to create a memorandum and articles of association

  7. Step 6 Check what records you'll need to keep

    1. You are currently viewing: Check the company and accounting records you must keep

  8. Step 7 Register your company with Companies House

    You'll need to register an official address and choose a SIC code - this identifies what your company does.

    1. Check the rules for registered office addresses and email addresses
    2. Check what your SIC code is
    3. Register your company with Companies House

  9. Step 8 Manage your Corporation Tax

    1. Add Corporation Tax services to your business tax account