Updated July 2026
Filing your Company Tax Return with HMRC does not file your accounts at Companies House. They are two separate submissions to two separate bodies with different deadlines and different content — the single most common thing landlords get caught out by. This walkthrough covers the Companies House half.
| HMRC (done via this site) | Companies House (this walkthrough) | |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline | 12 months after period end (tax paid at 9 months + 1 day) | 9 months after period end — usually the earlier of the two |
| What goes in | Full accounts + computation + CT600, iXBRL | Micro-entity balance sheet and its notes; the P&L can be omitted from the public record |
| Late penalty | £100 rising | £150 rising to £1,500 (doubles if late two years running) |
Your Companies House authentication code — a 6-character code posted to the registered office when you registered, needed to file anything online. Lost it? Request a new one on the Companies House website; it goes to the registered office address, so allow a few days. You also need the balance-sheet figures from your filing pack — everything on the accounts page we generated.
Sign in. Go to the Companies House WebFiling service on gov.uk, sign in (or register with an email), and enter your company number plus the authentication code.
Choose the accounts type. Pick "File accounts" and select micro-entity accounts. WebFiling presents a form matching the FRS 105 balance sheet — the same lines as the accounts in your filing pack.
Copy the balance sheet across. Fixed assets, current assets, creditors within one year, creditors after more than one year, net assets, capital and reserves — every figure comes straight from the accounts.html in your filing pack. Prior-year comparatives are zeros for a first year, otherwise last year's figures.
The statements. Tick the audit-exemption statements (section 477, members not requiring audit, directors' responsibilities, micro-entity provisions). The wording matches what's already printed at the bottom of your generated accounts.
Approve and submit. Enter the approving director's name and the approval date, submit, and keep the acceptance email. Companies House usually processes within a day or two; you can check the filing appears on your company's public record.
The public sees less than HMRC does: micro-entity companies may omit the profit and loss account from the public filing, so your rental income needn't be on the open register — only the balance sheet is. From April 2028 Companies House moves to software-only filing (like HMRC did in 2026) and will require the P&L to be delivered; we'll support that filing route before the mandate lands. Until then WebFiling remains free and direct.
Our wizard prepares the FRS 105 accounts, the computation and the CT600 from plain-English questions — here's how it works.
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