Late Corporation Tax: How to Avoid Companies House Striking Off Your Ltd Company

If you run a limited company and you are behind on either your CT600 corporation tax return or your annual accounts, you are dealing with two parallel penalty systems that operate independently of each other. Miss both, and you eventually face a threat that most directors do not fully appreciate until it is almost too late: Companies House striking off the company entirely.

The two separate deadlines most directors confuse

Corporation tax (CT600) is due with HMRC 12 months after the end of your accounting period. Your annual accounts must be filed with Companies House 9 months after the accounting period end — three months earlier than the CT600. They are separate obligations, separate regulators, and separate penalties.

Many directors who file the CT600 on time assume they have also satisfied Companies House. They have not. The accounts are a different document, filed in a different place, to a different regulator, on a different schedule.

What HMRC charges for a late CT600

• Up to 3 months late: £100 flat penalty (£200 if the previous year was also late)
• 3 to 6 months late: £200 flat penalty in addition (£400 if consecutive year)
• Over 6 months late: 10% of the unpaid corporation tax
• Over 12 months late: a further 10% of the unpaid corporation tax

What Companies House charges for late annual accounts

• Up to 1 month late: £150 (doubles to £300 if the previous year was also late)
• 1 to 3 months late: £375 (£750 if consecutive)
• 3 to 6 months late: £750 (£1,500 if consecutive)
• Over 6 months late: £1,500 (£3,000 if consecutive)

When strike-off becomes a real risk

Companies House monitors filing compliance and issues a warning notice when accounts remain outstanding for long enough. The notice gives the company a fixed period to comply before Companies House initiates a strike-off — removal of the company from the register.

When a company is struck off, everything the company owns — including its bank balances — passes to the Crown. Directors lose access to company funds immediately. Any personal guarantees on company loans may crystallise. Contracts held in the company name become void. And the company name becomes available for anyone else to register.

What most directors do not realise about strike-off

Strike-off does not eliminate HMRC liabilities. HMRC can pursue company directors personally for unpaid corporation tax, PAYE, and VAT in certain circumstances — particularly where there is evidence that directors have benefited from the company's assets before debts were cleared. Dissolution is not a clean exit from tax obligations.

If your company has already received a strike-off warning notice, the situation is time-sensitive. Accounts must be filed before the notice takes effect, or a separate application to restore the company must be made through the courts — which is a more expensive and slower process.

How to resolve it

File the Companies House accounts first to stop the strike-off clock. File the CT600 simultaneously or immediately after, using the same figures. Arrange payment or a Time to Pay plan for any outstanding corporation tax. Submit penalty appeals for any charges where the late filing had a genuine cause.

A corporate tax specialist handles all of this as a coordinated package — ensuring the figures are consistent between the two filings, the penalties are contested where possible, and the company remains on the register.