The Confirmation Statement deadline, explained for accountants

Every company and LLP on the register must file a Confirmation Statement at least once a year. It replaced the Annual Return in 2016 and confirms that the information Companies House holds — registered office, directors, shareholders, SIC codes, people with significant control — is still correct. It is a small filing with an outsized consequence when it slips.

How the deadline is calculated

The deadline is driven by the review period, not by a fixed calendar date:

• The first review period starts on the date of incorporation and runs for 12 months.
• Each subsequent review period starts the day after the last one ended.
• The statement must be filed within 14 days of the end of the review period.

So a company incorporated on 10 March 2025 has a review period ending 9 March 2026, and a Confirmation Statement deadline of 23 March 2026. File early and the next review period simply resets from the new statement date.

A common misconception: the Confirmation Statement is not tied to the accounting year-end. A client can have accounts due in December and a Confirmation Statement due in March. Tracking them as one date is a frequent source of missed filings.

What happens if it's late

There is no automatic financial penalty for a late Confirmation Statement in the way there is for late accounts. The risk is more serious than a fine: filing offences can lead to prosecution of directors, and — more commonly — a persistently overdue statement signals to Companies House that a company may no longer be operating, which can start the strike-off process. A struck-off company's assets pass to the Crown.

Tracking review periods across a portfolio

The difficulty for a practice is that every client has a different review period anchored to a different incorporation date. With 60 clients, that's 60 independent 14-day windows scattered across the year, none of which line up with the accounts cycle you're already watching.

• Record each company's incorporation date and last statement date once.
• Derive the next review-period end and add 14 days for the filing deadline.
• Set reminders well before the 14-day window opens — not on the day it closes.
• Mark the filing as submitted, with the date, so the next period resets cleanly.

FilingKeeper does this automatically: add a company and its Confirmation Statement deadline appears in the same view as its accounts, VAT and Corporation Tax dates, each reminded independently. Nothing depends on one person remembering which anniversary falls this month.

This article is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Confirm each client's obligations against current Companies House guidance.