Legally, no. But the filing obligations still sit with you as director, and the penalties are automatic. Here is what you actually have to do, and when doing it yourself stops making sense.
Nothing in UK company law says a limited company must appoint an accountant. A director can prepare and file the annual accounts, the confirmation statement and the Corporation Tax return themselves.
What the law does require is that those filings are correct and on time. That obligation sits with the directors, and it doesn't transfer to anyone you appoint. Hiring an accountant buys you competence and time — it doesn't move the responsibility.
| Filing | To | When |
|---|---|---|
| Annual accounts | Companies House | 9 months after year end (21 months after incorporation for a first set) |
| Confirmation statement | Companies House | Annually |
| Corporation Tax return and accounts | HMRC | 12 months after year end |
| Corporation Tax payment | HMRC | 9 months and 1 day after year end — before the return is due |
| VAT returns | HMRC | Usually quarterly, digitally under MTD, if registered |
| Payroll (RTI) | HMRC | On or before each payday, if you have employees |
Note the fourth row. The tax is due before the return is due. That single mismatch catches more first-time directors than anything else on the list — you're expected to know what you owe three months before you have to tell HMRC what it is.
Companies House late filing penalties are automatic and escalate the longer accounts are outstanding — and they double if you file late two years running. HMRC runs a separate penalty regime for late Corporation Tax returns, plus interest on tax paid late.
Persistent failure can end in the company being struck off and directors disqualified. And penalties for late filing are not deductible against your profits, so you pay them out of taxed money.
Plenty of small companies run perfectly well this way for years. If that's you, an accountant once a year for the accounts and tax return is a reasonable arrangement.
It's not a binary. The common middle ground is monthly bookkeeping plus an accountant at year end — someone keeps the records right as you go, and a tax specialist handles the annual filings from clean data.
It's usually cheaper than it sounds, because the year-end fee falls when the books arrive in good order. The expensive version is the opposite: a year of miscoded transactions unpicked at professional rates in month eleven.
A fair test of your own books: could you hand them over tomorrow without apologising for them?
If you're weighing it up on cost, our bookkeeping prices guide sets out what UK firms actually charge, and the cost calculator works out what doing it yourself is costing in hours. If you're not sure which service you need, bookkeeper vs accountant explains the split.
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