CIC Annual Requirements: Filing Deadlines & Compliance Guide

If you run a Community Interest Company, you have ongoing legal obligations. This guide is for existing CIC directors who need to know exactly what to file, when and how.

The good news: CIC compliance is lighter than charity compliance. There are three Companies House filings a year plus a tax return, and none of them is complicated for a small CIC.

The bad news: miss the accounts deadline and the penalty is automatic. Miss enough filings and Companies House can strike the company off, with directors personally exposed.

Here is what you need to file and when:

• Your accounting reference date (year end): usually the last day of the month you incorporated.
• Your confirmation statement date: the end of your 12-month review period, which starts on incorporation or the date of your last statement.

Formerly the "annual return", the confirmation statement is a snapshot confirming that your company details on the Companies House register are correct.

• Registered office address and registered email address
• Directors and their details
• People with significant control (PSCs)
• SIC code (your business activity classification)
• Statement of capital and shareholders (if you are a CIC limited by shares)

Within 14 days of the end of your review period. The review period is 12 months from incorporation, then 12 months from the date of your last statement. You can file early, and many CICs file on or just before the anniversary.

1. Sign in to Companies House online filing (you need your company authentication code)
2. Choose "File a confirmation statement"
3. Check every detail is correct and update anything that has changed
4. Pay the £50 fee (£110 if you file on paper) and submit

If nothing has changed it is a quick job. If directors, PSCs or the registered office have changed, file the relevant change forms first.

Financial statements showing your CIC's position: what you own, what you owe, your income and your expenditure.

• First accounts: 21 months from incorporation (or 3 months after the accounting reference date, whichever is later)
• Subsequent accounts: 9 months after your accounting reference date

Example: if your year end is 31 March 2026, accounts are due by 31 December 2026.

Micro-entity accounts are the simplest. For financial years starting on or after 6 April 2025 you qualify if you meet at least two of these three:

• Turnover up to £1 million
• Balance sheet total up to £500,000
• No more than 10 employees on average

Most small CICs qualify. Micro-entity accounts are a short balance sheet with a few notes. Above those limits you move to small company accounts (turnover up to £15 million).

Not legally required for a small CIC. Many directors prepare their own accounts with accounting software or a spreadsheet and file them through the Companies House service.

If your finances are complex or you are not confident, an accountant is worth the cost. Small-CIC year-end packages are typically a few hundred pounds.

The CIC34 is unique to Community Interest Companies. It is your annual public report on how you have benefited the community: the thing that makes you a CIC rather than an ordinary company.

1. Activities and community benefit: what your CIC actually did this year and who benefited
2. Stakeholder consultation: how you engaged beneficiaries and the community, and what changed as a result
3. Directors' remuneration: what directors were paid, or a statement that none were
4. Asset transfers: any transfers to other asset-locked bodies or at below market value

CICs limited by shares that paid a dividend, or any CIC that paid performance-related interest, use the detailed version of the form instead of the simplified one.

Filed together with your annual accounts, so it takes the same 9-month deadline. There is no separate CIC34 date.

1. Download the CIC34 form from gov.uk (free)
2. Complete it and have a director sign it
3. File it with your accounts, either through the Companies House CIC accounts service or by post to Companies House
4. Fee: £15, paid by card online or by cheque payable to Companies House if you post it

• Being too vague: "We helped the community."
• Being specific instead: "We delivered 48 weekly youth sessions attended by 127 young people."
• Posting it to the CIC Regulator on its own. It is filed at Companies House with the accounts. Sent separately, it does not count as filed.

Our CIC34 guide goes through all four parts with a fully worked example.

CICs pay Corporation Tax on profits, just like any other limited company. Unlike charities, CICs do not get tax exemptions. See do CICs pay tax? for the full picture.

• Register for Corporation Tax: within 3 months of starting to do business
• Pay any tax due: 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period
• File the Company Tax Return: 12 months after the end of your accounting period

• Filed with HMRC, not Companies House. It is a separate system and a separate login.
• Even if you made no profit, you must file a return once HMRC expects one.
• Rates from 1 April 2023: 19% on profits up to £50,000, 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief in between.
• Late returns cost £200 from the first day, another £200 at 3 months, and more if tax is unpaid at 6 and 12 months.

Do you need an accountant? Worth considering for Corporation Tax even if you file your own Companies House accounts. Tax rules are detailed and mistakes are expensive.

Keep your register of members up to date, and make sure the directors and PSCs shown at Companies House match reality. Since 18 November 2025 new directors and PSCs must verify their identity with Companies House, and existing directors must do so by the CIC's next confirmation statement.

You must tell Companies House about:

• Director appointments and resignations: within 14 days
• Change of registered office: within 14 days
• Changes to PSC information: within 14 days of confirming the change
• Change of company name: needs a special resolution and the CIC Regulator's consent

Keep records for at least 6 years:

• Financial records and receipts
• Board meeting minutes and resolutions
• Contracts and agreements
• Employment records

Not a filing requirement, but review these annually:

• Public liability insurance: sensible for most CICs
• Employers' liability insurance: required by law if you have employees
• Professional indemnity: if you give advice or professional services
• Directors' and officers' insurance: protects board members personally
• Your policies: safeguarding, data protection, health and safety and the rest. Funders and partners ask for them, and a policy nobody has read since incorporation is a risk.

Build your own calendar from your year end. Here is an example for a 31 March year end:

• Do not wait for the deadline. Aim to file 2 to 3 months early.
• Set calendar reminders for each task, not just the final date.
• Keep a running impact note through the year so the CIC34 is transcription, not archaeology.
• Sign up for Companies House email reminders for accounts and confirmation statements.

• Automatic penalty: £150 to £1,500 depending on how late
• Appeals rarely succeed: "I forgot" or "I was busy" will not work
• Penalty doubles if you were late the previous year too
• Persistent failure: the company can be struck off and directors prosecuted

• No automatic financial penalty, but failing to file is a criminal offence
• Reminder letters, then Companies House starts the strike-off process
• If struck off, the company ceases to exist
• Its assets pass to the Crown as bona vacantia

• The accounts package is incomplete, so the accounts count as late
• The CIC Regulator may ask for information
• Persistent failure can lead to investigation and, in serious cases, action against the CIC

1. File immediately. Late is better than never, and the penalty band only gets worse.
2. Pay any penalty promptly. It does not go away.
3. Set up reminders so it cannot happen again.
4. Consider an accountant if the accounts were the sticking point.

Filings are the legal minimum. The other thing that catches established CICs out is paperwork that funders, councils and partners ask for and that nobody has written: a safeguarding policy, a data protection policy, health and safety, equality and diversity, a complaints procedure, a conflicts of interest policy.

If your CIC has none of these, or has copies from a template that do not describe how you actually work, that is the next job after the filings. Our Policy Pack writes six tailored policies from your answers for a £30 one-off fee, and the CIC34 guide covers the report itself.

Running a CIC means accepting some admin. It is genuinely manageable:

• Confirmation statement: once a year, £50 online
• Accounts: a few hours, or hand them to an accountant. No filing fee.
• CIC34: time to reflect on your impact, £15 to file
• Corporation Tax: a return to HMRC, often handled by an accountant

The key is staying organised. Put the dates in your calendar, keep records through the year and do not leave everything to the deadline week.