On 31 March 2026 HMRC and Companies House closed the free online service thousands of small companies used to file their accounts and CT600. If that was you, the menu you used has simply vanished. Here's what to do about it — starting with a 60-second check of where you stand.
The joint HMRC / Companies House online filing service — the free way thousands of small companies filed accounts and the CT600 — shut on 31 March 2026.
Corporation Tax returns now have to be filed through commercial software, with accounts tagged in iXBRL. Filing to HMRC and Companies House are now two separate jobs.
Companies House has confirmed company accounts go software-only too, from 1 April 2028. The direction is one-way.
The old service quietly did both jobs in one sitting, which is why so many directors think of “the accounts” as one filing. It never was — and now the seam shows. Three deadlines, two government bodies, each with its own penalty clock:
| What you file | Where it goes | Deadline | If you're late |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual accounts | Companies House | 9 months after your year end | Penalties from £150, escalating to £1,500 — and doubled if you're late two years running |
| Corporation Tax payment | HMRC | 9 months and 1 day after your year end | Interest charged from day one |
| CT600 + iXBRL accounts | HMRC | 12 months after your year end | £200 at 1 day, another £200 at 3 months, then 10% of unpaid tax at 6 and again at 12 months |
Worked example: a company with a 31 October 2025 year end must file its accounts at Companies House by 31 July 2026 and pay its Corporation Tax by 1 August 2026— months before the CT600 itself falls due on 31 October 2026. The checker below pulls your company's real dates straight from Companies House.
Taxopedia is building a self-serve CT600 filing service, and it's free to file while we prove it — dormant or trading. Leave your email and we'll send one message when it opens.
Why you pay before you file, why your first year needs two tax returns, and both penalty ladders in full.
Read the guide →There isn't any — and what 'filing it yourself' actually costs now, from the subscription to the iXBRL tagging.
Read the guide →The joint HMRC and Companies House online filing service closed on 31 March 2026. Since 2011 it let small companies file statutory accounts with Companies House and the Corporation Tax return (CT600) with HMRC in one place, for free. From 1 April 2026, CT600s must be filed through commercial software.
No. There is no longer a free HMRC filing route for company tax returns — you either buy commercial filing software or have an accountant file through theirs. There's no paper option you can simply ask HMRC to agree to: you can only file on paper if you have a reasonable excuse — judged after the event, not pre-approved, and sent with a WT1 form if HMRC's own online service failed — or you're filing in Welsh. Otherwise it has to be filed online.
No — previously filed returns stopped being accessible when the service closed. If you didn't download copies in time, don't panic: your filed accounts remain on the public record at Companies House, and an accountant can help reconstruct what HMRC holds.
Yes — for accounts. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, Companies House confirmed in June 2026 that all accounts filed on or after 1 April 2028 must go through commercial software; its web and paper routes close for accounts. From the same date, small companies and micro-entities must also file their profit and loss account. Other filings, like the confirmation statement, stay on web filing.
It ranges widely — from around £20–£60 a year for a bare single-company filing up to £200–£300+ for fuller packages, depending on the product. The bigger cost is time: learning the software, tagging your accounts in iXBRL, and carrying the risk of mistakes — late-filing penalties start at £200 for the CT600 and £150 at Companies House, and escalate.
12 months after the end of the accounting period it covers. But don't relax on that date: your accounts are due at Companies House 9 months after your year end, and your Corporation Tax payment is due 9 months and 1 day after it — so the money and the accounts both land months before the return itself. A company with a 31 October 2025 year end, for example, must file accounts at Companies House by 31 July 2026 and pay its Corporation Tax by 1 August 2026.
HMRC no longer provides one — that's exactly what closed on 31 March 2026. Some commercial products advertise free or trial tiers, but the full job — a CT600 with tax computations plus accounts tagged in iXBRL — almost always sits behind a paid plan, ranging from around £20–£60 a year for a bare single-company filing up to £200–£300+ for fuller packages. The realistic choice is buying software and doing it yourself, or having an accountant file through theirs.
Possibly not. If the company is genuinely dormant for Corporation Tax you can tell HMRC — future returns then stop being required unless HMRC issues a fresh notice to deliver one. But if HMRC has already sent a 'notice to deliver a Company Tax Return' — or you've filed one before — that return still has to be filed to show the company was dormant for the period; telling HMRC it's dormant does not cancel an outstanding notice, and a dormant company that was served one is still liable to the late-filing penalty if it ignores it. Dormancy stops future returns, not one already asked for. Dormant accounts can currently still be filed with Companies House through its own web service. We can sort the dormant status out for you in one short call.
Book a free, no-pressure call — we'll look at where your company stands and take the whole filing question off your plate.
Book a free call →We checked these rather than relying on memory. Every figure and deadline above comes from HMRC directly — go and read them yourself if you'd like to.
Last reviewed 14-07-2026. Tax rules change — if you're reading this long after that date, check the source.
