Corporation Tax 101
If you make business profits, you have to pay Corporation Tax. Payment is required nine months and one day after your company's accounting period ends. Note that this date might be different from your annual accounts year-end. You can submit your Corporation Tax return up to 12 months after your accounting year-end.
How much tax do I have to pay?
HMRC will let you know when your submission is due with a CT603 letter — a ‘notice to deliver a company tax return’. This will arrive in the post. You'll need to submit a corporation tax return even if you think there's no tax to pay. Tax depends on profits, the types of costs in the business and the prevailing tax rate - for most this is 19% up until 31st March 2019.
There are also penalties for being late!
Time after the deadline | Penalty (for private limited companies) |
---|---|
1 day | £100.00 |
3 months | Another £100 |
6 months | HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will estimate your Corporation Tax bill and add a penalty of 10% the unpaid tax |
12 months | Another 10% of any unpaid tax |