Crownfield Limited · Accounting and tax · England and Wales
Accounting and tax services for UK companies
Every UK limited company files annual accounts and a Corporation Tax return. What changes the outcome is what happens during the year, not the week before the deadline.
Review your tax position with CrownfieldAnnual accounts
Statutory accounts prepared from your records and filed at Companies House.
Corporation Tax
The return to HMRC, with payment timing usually falling before the filing date.
Management accounts
Monthly or quarterly reports directors use before the year end closes.
What an accounting and tax service actually covers
The difference between doing the minimum and running a useful finance function comes down to what happens during the year. Crownfield Limited provides bookkeeping, statutory accounts, management accounts, and corporate tax planning for businesses across England and Wales. Below is what each piece does, and where directors usually need to make a decision.
The services in this area
Each row is a piece of the same filing cycle. Most owner-managed companies use several of them together, and the order below roughly follows the year.
Bookkeeping as the base layer
Bank reconciliations, sales and purchase invoices, expense categorisation, and reconciliation back to the statements. Where records have fallen behind we can rebuild them, though keeping them current costs less than reconstructing a year at once.
Annual accounts and the filing deadline
Annual accounts are prepared from your financial records and filed with Companies House, then used as the basis for the Corporation Tax return to HMRC. For a private company the filing deadline is generally nine months after the accounting reference date.
Management accounts during the year
Internal reports prepared monthly or quarterly, usually covering profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow. They are the tool directors use to make decisions before the statutory year end, not after it.
Corporate tax planning
How directors are remunerated, whether salary, dividends, or a mix suits the company, how capital expenditure timing affects allowances, and how profits are retained or distributed. For owner-managed companies the corporate and personal positions need to be looked at together.
Cash flow forecasting
Profit and cash are not the same thing, and growing companies often find that out the hard way. A forecast maps expected receipts and payments over the coming months, factoring in VAT, PAYE, Corporation Tax, and loan repayments. It is one of the most practical reports a director can hold when weighing a hire or a significant purchase.
VAT and indirect taxes
VAT registration becomes mandatory once taxable turnover passes the threshold, and voluntary registration can make sense earlier if you sell to VAT-registered customers. Once registered, returns are due quarterly under the standard scheme, though other schemes exist. We handle registration, return preparation, and the Making Tax Digital record-keeping that goes with it.
Reporting to lenders and investors
Banks, investors, and grant providers often want more than the statutory accounts. They ask for management accounts, forecasts, and commentary on performance. We prepare reporting packs in a form third parties can work with, which tends to shorten the back-and-forth during a funding application or a credit review.
Management accounts, read before the year closes
A monthly pack turns a conversation about performance into something grounded in figures rather than recollection.
The year, and where the deadlines fall
A private company's first accounting period usually runs from incorporation to the last day of the month twelve months later. After that the accounting reference date moves on by a year each time, and the filing cycle follows it. Two dates matter more than the rest, and they are not the same date.
Annual accounts go to Companies House generally within nine months of the accounting reference date. Corporation Tax is usually payable before the return is due, which catches directors out when cash has been committed elsewhere. Penalties for late filing begin automatically and increase the longer a filing stays outstanding, so the practical advice is to have the records ready well before the deadline rather than at it.
If a period has already slipped, the first useful step is a short reconciliation of what exists: bank statements, invoices, and any prior filings. From there we can set a realistic date for getting the position current and keep the filings from falling further behind.
Where each step sits
Accounting reference date
The end of the period the accounts are prepared for.
Corporation Tax payment
Usually due before the return itself has to be submitted.
Accounts filed at Companies House
Generally nine months after the accounting reference date.
Rebuilding records that have fallen behind
Statutory accounts are only as accurate as the records behind them. Keeping bookkeeping current costs less than reconstructing a year at once.
Tax planning, and where it usually starts
Tax planning works best as part of the decision rather than a cleanup afterwards. The questions we usually work through with directors are practical ones: how you pay yourself, when to commit to capital expenditure, whether profits stay in the company or come out, and how the corporate and personal positions fit together.
For an owner-managed company those decisions rarely sit in one place. A salary-and-dividend mix that suits one year can look wrong the next, and the timing of a purchase or a hire can move the numbers more than any single allowance. We look at the whole position before recommending a route.
What we look at before recommending
- How directors are remunerated: salary, dividends, or a mix
- The timing of capital expenditure and how allowances apply
- Whether profits are retained in the company or distributed
- How the corporate position and the personal position interact
If a tax investigation starts
HMRC enquiries range from routine compliance checks to something more serious, and the opening letter rarely says which it will turn out to be.
What matters first
Responding accurately and on time, with records that support the figures filed. Delay and guesswork make a routine check harder than it needs to be.
What we handle
The correspondence and the preparation of responses, so the company's position is set out clearly against the records it holds.
Where we draw the line
Where a matter needs a specialist tax investigator or legal input, we will say so rather than take on something outside our remit.
Records that help
Bank reconciliations, invoice trails, and the working papers behind the figures filed. Rebuilding them during an enquiry is slower than keeping them current.
Most tax questions are really timing questions.
Payment dates, filing dates, and the point at which a decision becomes expensive to reverse. Bring the position as it stands and we will work through what can still be moved and what has already passed.
Questions directors ask us
Short answers to the points that come up most often when a company first looks at its accounting and tax position.
If your situation is not covered here, the contact page has the phone number, email address, and office hours for Crownfield Limited.
Contact CrownfieldWhen are my annual accounts due at Companies House?
For a private company, generally nine months after the accounting reference date. Your first period may be longer than twelve months if it was set up that way at incorporation, so it is worth checking the date on the Companies House record rather than assuming a calendar year.
Is Corporation Tax due at the same time as the return?
No. Corporation Tax is usually payable before the return is due, and that gap is what catches directors out. If you only look at the filing date you can miss the payment date, so the two should sit in the same cash flow forecast.
Do I need management accounts if I already file statutory accounts?
They answer different questions. Statutory accounts report a closed period to Companies House and HMRC; management accounts give you figures while the year is still open, which is when most decisions are actually made. Companies with a lender or an investor often need both.
Can you take over bookkeeping that has fallen behind?
Yes. We start with what exists, agree a realistic date for getting the records current, and then keep them running through the year. It is usually cheaper to bring a year up to date once than to reconstruct several at the same time.
How do you handle Making Tax Digital for VAT?
We handle registration, quarterly return preparation, and the digital record-keeping that goes with it. If your current records are held in a way that will not carry across, we will say so before the first return rather than after it.
What should I send before a first conversation?
The last set of accounts or the most recent management figures, the current bank statements, and a note of any filing deadline already close. That is enough to have a useful first conversation about where the company stands.
Where to go next
Accounting and tax work sits alongside the rest of what Crownfield Limited does for companies in England and Wales. If your question is about setting up a company, running payroll, or planning a succession rather than the annual filing cycle, the relevant page below is the shortest route to an answer.
Crownfield Limited
50 Victoria Avenue, Caversham, Reading, England
Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Ask about annual accountsRegistered in England and Wales (No. 16239480).