Accountant for first-time UK company directors

What first-time directors usually get wrong about tax

The most common mistake is treating company money as personal money. Once you incorporate, the company is its own legal entity. Its bank balance is not the same as yours. That is true even if you are the only director and shareholder. Paying yourself informally, with no clear split between salary, dividends and expenses, creates a mess. It takes time to unpick later.

Dividends are another frequent trap. A dividend can only come out of profit the company has actually made, after Corporation Tax. It cannot come from cash sitting in the account from a customer payment that arrived early. Directors sometimes draw dividends without checking this first. That can leave the director's loan account overdrawn. An overdrawn loan account has its own tax cost if it is not cleared in time.

Many first-time directors do not expect how much admin a limited company brings. Payroll, Corporation Tax, annual accounts, and a confirmation statement to Companies House are all new. None of these existed when you were self-employed. It helps to know they are coming before your first year end, not partway through it.

Some new directors also forget to put money aside for Corporation Tax as it builds up. The company's cash balance can look healthy right up until the bill lands. A rough monthly estimate, set aside as you go, avoids a scramble at year end.

The deadlines that apply to you

You must tell HMRC your company has started trading. You must also register for Corporation Tax. Both need to happen within three months of starting business activity. Payment is normally due nine months and one day after your company's year end. The return itself has a later filing deadline. Confusing the two dates is a common source of unnecessary penalties.

Companies House runs its own separate calendar. Annual accounts and a confirmation statement are both due each year, on dates set independently of your Corporation Tax deadlines. If you run payroll, that adds monthly reporting on top of everything else. Keeping all of this on one calendar is one of the simplest ways to avoid a missed filing.

What we handle for you

If you have not yet formed your company, our limited company formation service sets things up correctly from the start. That includes registering for Corporation Tax at the right time. Once you are trading, our founder's finance stack guide walks through the practical setup most first-time directors need. It covers business banking through to bookkeeping software, for your first ninety days.

We prepare your annual accounts and Corporation Tax return. We run payroll if you take a salary. We advise on dividends, so you know what the company can safely pay out before you draw it. Our annual compliance calendar lays out every recurring deadline in one place, covering both HMRC and Companies House.

We also help you set up a director's loan account correctly from the outset. Money moving between you and the company gets recorded properly. It is not reconstructed at year end from bank statements. Quarterly check-ins keep this current, so it does not build up unnoticed over the year.

What it costs

Fees depend on your company's size, whether you run payroll, and how much bookkeeping support you want alongside the statutory filings. Check the pricing page for current fixed-fee packages.

We are a solo, ACCA-regulated practice working entirely online. Pricing is fixed and predictable. That tends to matter most in a company's first year, when cash flow is tightest and surprises are least welcome.

A single director with no payroll usually costs less to run than a company with staff and more moving parts. If your company grows, we adjust your package as you go. You will never be moved up a tier without knowing why.

Getting started

We start with a short call about your company. What stage are you at? Have you already incorporated? What do you have in place for banking and bookkeeping so far? From there we can tell you what needs sorting first, and what can reasonably wait.

Once you are onboarded, records are shared digitally. Deadlines are tracked proactively across both HMRC and Companies House. You are prompted well ahead of each one, rather than chased after it has passed.