Confirmation Statement

A confirmation statement is a document that company directors must complete at least once every 12 months and deliver to Companies House. It is used to confirm the registered details of a company at a certain date. It is important not to confuse the confirmation statement with annual accounts – they are completely different!

The confirmation statement was previously the annual return (the name changed on 30 June 2016).

You must file your first confirmation statement with Companies House no later than 14 days after the anniversary of company formation. Future confirmation statements must be delivered no later than 14 days after the ‘confirmation date’ of the previous statement – in most cases, this is the same date as your incorporation anniversary, unless you file an early statement one year.

This is the date on which all information included in the Confirmation Statement must be correct and it will most likely be the anniversary of company incorporation. The confirmation date falls exactly 12 months after the date of company registration or the 12 months after the confirmation date of the previous year’s statement.

LLP stands for Limited Liability Partnership, and is similar to a normal business partnership, with the one difference being that the personal liability of the partners is limited.

The Confirmation Statement confirms and reports all current registered details of a company and its members, whereas the annual accounts are the financial accounts of a company. Both must be accurate and filed with Companies House each year, and annual accounts must also be delivered to HMRC with the Company Tax Return.

There are no automatic penalty for the late filing of a Confirmation Statement. These only apply to late annual accounts. However, failure to file a Confirmation Statement at all will likely result in Companies House taking steps to strike off the company