For a limited company, an accountant prepares the statutory annual accounts, calculates Corporation Tax and files the Company Tax Return, runs payroll and VAT where the company has them, advises directors on how to take money out of the company properly, and keeps the company’s fixed calendar of filings met. The work is broader and more formal than for a sole trader for one underlying reason: the company is a separate legal entity from you. Its money is not your money, its obligations are statutory, and directors carry personal responsibility for seeing them met. GOV.UK’s guidance on running a company sets out those duties; an accountant is how most directors meet the financial ones.
Statutory accounts
Every company must prepare annual accounts to a prescribed format and file them at Companies House, where they become publicly visible. The requirements are on GOV.UK. This is not bookkeeping printed out. Statutory accounts involve formal adjustments, correct treatment of assets, liabilities and equity, and disclosure decisions, including how much detail a small company chooses to make public within the rules.
The accountant prepares these from the company’s records, walks the directors through them before approval, and files them on time. Because filed accounts are read by lenders, suppliers, potential customers and anyone else who cares to look, their quality carries a reputational weight sole trader accounts never do. The step-by-step of this process is covered in what an accountant does at year end.
Corporation Tax and the Company Tax Return
Companies pay Corporation Tax on their profits and must file a Company Tax Return with HMRC, with the tax computation bridging from the accounts to the taxable figure. Along the way the accountant applies the reliefs and allowances the company is entitled to (capital allowances on equipment, and any of the targeted reliefs that fit the company’s activity) and tells the directors what is due and when. Payment and filing run on separate timetables, both set out on GOV.UK.
The awkward feature of Corporation Tax is that payment is typically due before the return’s filing deadline, which catches directors who assume the dates line up. An accountant’s calendar prevents exactly that class of surprise.
Payroll, VAT and the other registrations
Most companies pay at least one salary, often just the director’s, which makes the company an employer with the full payroll reporting cycle that implies. VAT applies once the company registers, compulsorily or by choice. The accountant runs both or reviews them, as described in the dedicated guides to payroll and VAT. Alongside these sit the company’s administrative filings, such as the confirmation statement keeping the public record current.
Individually none of these is difficult. What catches directors is the aggregate: several parallel obligations on independent timetables, none of which pauses because you are busy trading.
Advice for directors: taking money out, and the choices companies raise
The advisory side is where company accountancy differs most from sole trader work. Because company money is not yours, every pound you extract takes a defined route (salary, dividends, expense reimbursement, pension contributions or loans), and each route has its own tax treatment, paperwork and pitfalls. Dividends need available profits and proper documentation. Director’s loans have specific tax consequences if they are not handled correctly. Getting the mix right, and revisiting it as rules and profits change, is a standing piece of planning work rather than a one-off decision.
Beyond extraction, companies raise structural choices sole traders never face: share structures when a spouse or partner is involved, retaining profits in the company versus drawing them, how to fund growth, and eventually how to exit. These sit within the planning boundaries discussed in tax planning and tax avoidance: using the choices the system provides, documented and defensible.
The calendar, kept
A company’s year generates a fixed set of deadlines: accounts to Companies House, the Company Tax Return and payment to HMRC, VAT periods, payroll submissions each pay period, and the confirmation statement. The accountant maintains this calendar, requests information ahead of each date and files on time, which sounds mundane until you consider that late company filings carry automatic consequences and appear on the public record. Where all this fits in the broader role, across every business type, is mapped in what an accountant does for a small business.
Frequently asked questions
Is a limited company legally required to have an accountant?
No. Directors can prepare and file everything themselves. In practice the prescribed formats, the tax computation and the extraction decisions are where DIY companies go wrong, and correcting filed errors costs more than preventing them.
What does an accountant need from a company each year?
The records behind the year: bank statements, sales and purchase records, payroll data, VAT workings and answers on anything unusual, plus the director’s loan position. The general list is in what information an accountant needs.
Can my accountant advise me personally as well as the company?
Usually yes, and it is often sensible: a director’s personal tax position and the company’s are entangled, and the salary-dividend decision only makes sense viewed across both. Directors generally file personal Self Assessment returns too, which the same firm typically handles.
What happens if company filings are late?
Late accounts and returns carry automatic penalties that escalate with delay, and late accounts are visible on the public record. Current penalty rules are on GOV.UK. The reliable fix is a maintained filing calendar with information gathered early.
My company is dormant or barely trading. Do the obligations still apply?
Companies have filing obligations even when small or inactive, though reduced in some cases. If a company is not earning its keep as a structure, that is worth an explicit conversation rather than drift. Sometimes the right advice is to simplify.
How we can help
Our company accounts service covers the statutory accounts, Corporation Tax, filings and director advice described here. See also our dedicated page for limited company clients. Request a quote and we will scope exactly what your company needs.