When you moved your property into a company, the paperwork roughly tripled. There are accounts for Companies House, a corporation tax return for HMRC, a confirmation statement, and dates attached to all of them that do not move and do not care why you were late.
The penalties for missing them are automatic. Nobody reads your explanation.
But that is rarely the part that actually costs you.
The expensive version is the remortgage
Your broker asks for up to date accounts. You ask your accountant. Three weeks later something arrives, by which time the product you were going for has gone, or the lender has re-asked for something more recent, and the whole thing starts again.
That delay is not usually caused by the accounts being difficult. It is caused by the bookkeeping being nine months behind, so the accounts have to be built from scratch before anyone can answer a simple question.
What changes
Your books stay current through the year rather than being reconstructed at the end of it. That one change does most of the work:
- The deadlines stop being events. Accounts and the corporation tax return are prepared and filed with time to spare, not in the last week.
- A broker's request becomes a short email, because the figures already exist.
- You know what is coming. The corporation tax bill is not a surprise in month eleven, because it was discussed before the year even ended.
- The confirmation statement and the Companies House housekeeping are handled rather than remembered.
What is actually included
- Annual accounts prepared and filed at Companies House
- The company corporation tax return prepared and filed with HMRC
- Confirmation statement and the routine Companies House filings
- Your self assessment return where you need one alongside the company
- Any other business you run looked after at the same time, so it is one firm rather than two
Who this is for
Any landlord with property in a limited company, from the first one onwards. This is the floor rather than the ceiling: it is the part that simply has to be right before anything more interesting, like planning or structure, is worth discussing.
If your books are currently a shoebox and nine months behind, that is a normal starting point and not something to be embarrassed about. Getting them straight is the first job, and it is a one-off piece of work rather than a permanent state.