Guide

Moving from an accountant to filing it yourself

An accountant shows you your company's year once, months after it ends. Doing it yourself means seeing your own numbers whenever you like and making the decisions while they still change the bill.

With an accountant, the company's year passes without you seeing the figures, and you see them once near the filing deadline, nine months after the year ends. Filing it yourself, you can see your tax position in any month, make decisions such as salary and dividends before the year ends, and file when you are ready.

Whoever prepares them, filing the accounts and the Company Tax Return is one of a director's duties, and using an accountant leaves you legally responsible for the company's records and accounts.

The handover

Your accountant filed with their own HMRC login, so most of the move is getting logins of your own, and two come by post. You pick up from the first period they have not filed; nothing already filed needs redoing.

  1. Today
    Ask for everything at once
  2. Up to 10 days
    Two letters in the post
    • Both codes go to the registered office. If that is your accountant's address, ask them to forward the letters or change it first
    • Records arrive from your accountant
  3. Ready
    File it yourself
    • Activate Corporation Tax in your business tax account
    • Import last year's return, check the figures, file

If your accountant filed your personal return too, check your personal tax account shows Self Assessment. Adding it can mean a third letter.

Who holds last year's figures

One record is public. The rest is in your accountant's working papers, and handing it over is routine: they are your records.

On the public register
Last year's balance sheet
A.X.E.L fetches it from Companies House
Only your accountant has
  • Last year's profit and loss
    the comparative column
  • CT600 and tax computations
    where the rest comes from
  • Capital allowance pool balances
    they carry forward
  • Trading losses carried forward
    they cut this year's tax
  • Director's loan account balance
    at the year end
  • Your last Self Assessment calculation
    for payments on account
Show the email to send them
Hi [name],

I'm going to prepare and file [company]'s accounts and Corporation Tax return myself from [the first period], along with my own Self Assessment. Thank you for all your help so far.

Could you send me the following, so I start from the right figures?

- The last accounts and CT600 you filed, with the tax computations
- The closing trial balance for that year
- The capital allowance pool balances carried forward
- Any trading losses carried forward
- The director's loan account balance at the year end
- My last Self Assessment tax calculation
- The Companies House authentication code, if you hold it

Could you also confirm you haven't filed or started anything for [the first period], so it doesn't get filed twice?

Many thanks,
[your name]

The checklist in the app fills in the brackets and opens it in your email app.

No form to fill in: clearance letters pass between accountants, not to you. Their authorisation as your agent does not stop you filing.

What A.X.E.L does with them

Add last year's CT600, computations and accounts. Every figure shows where it came from, and nothing goes in until you choose. From your second year it carries forward from your own return.

Read on your device and never uploaded. Lines found in a computations PDF wait for you to tick them.

January's bill, if you pay on account

Last year's bill was over £1,000? Then you have probably been paying on account towards this year. Those payments come off. Your HMRC statement shows them.

Self Assessment, an example

Payments on account made last January and July

Tax for the year£6,000
Already paid on account(£4,000)
Left to pay£2,000
First payment towards next year£3,000
Due 31 January£5,000

Start with the first period your accountant has not filed

The wizard reads your company from Companies House, reads last year's files if you have them, and shows your tax as you type. A free account saves your progress; you pay only when you file.

Start your return

Illustration only, simplified for clarity. Real returns can differ. This page explains the mechanism; it is not tax or accountancy advice, and the figures on any return remain the company's responsibility.