CIC34 Form: How to Write Your Annual CIC Report

Last updated: August 2026

Written by Ben Ahern, Founder of CIC Tools & Co-founder of Homeless Aid UK CIC

Quick Answer

The CIC34 is the annual community interest report every CIC must file with its accounts at Companies House. It asks four things: what you did and who benefited, how you consulted stakeholders, what directors were paid, and any asset transfers. Specific beats impressive - name numbers, people and changes.

Before anything else: the official CIC34 form is free to download from gov.uk. Nobody needs to sell you the form. What is genuinely hard is knowing what to put in it, which is what the rest of this page is about.

What the CIC34 Is (and Isn't)

The CIC34 is your community interest company report: a short annual account of how your CIC served its community over the financial year. Every CIC files one, every year, for as long as it exists. It is the price of the CIC brand - you get to call yourself a community interest company, and once a year you show your working in public.

The single most useful thing to understand is where it goes. The Regulator's guidance is blunt about it: the report "must be filed together with the company's annual accounts". You deliver one package to Companies House - accounts plus CIC34 plus the fee. You do not post the CIC34 to the CIC Regulator on its own, and doing that does not count as filing it.

What it is not

• Not your accounts. The numbers live in the accounts; the CIC34 is the narrative that sits alongside them.
• Not your confirmation statement. That is a separate annual filing about your company's details.
• Not a grant report or an impact report. You can lift material from one, but the CIC34 has its own four required parts.
• Not private. It goes on the public register, where funders, partners and journalists can and do read it.

For the full picture of what else falls due each year, see CIC annual requirements and deadlines.

Simplified or Detailed?

There are two versions of the CIC34 and almost everyone reading this needs the first one. gov.uk puts it plainly: "The majority of CICs complete the simplified report. The detailed report is reserved for CICs that have more complex financial arrangements."

Simplified report

The default, for CICs limited by guarantee and CICs limited by shares alike, where nothing has been paid out to investors. If your CIC took no dividends and pays no performance-linked interest, this is you.

Detailed report

Required where the CIC has paid a performance related interest on a debt outstanding or a debenture, or - if it is limited by shares - has declared or proposes to declare a dividend. It asks for the extra figures that show you stayed within the caps.

The worked wording on this page, and the example PDF below, are for the simplified report. If either trigger above applies to your CIC, use the detailed version and give the capped amounts in full.

When It's Due, and the Fee

Because the report travels with the accounts, it inherits the accounts deadline. There is no separate CIC34 date to remember.

The deadline

Normal years: 9 months after the end of your accounting reference period, for a private company - which almost every CIC is.
First accounts covering more than 12 months: 21 months after incorporation, or 3 months after the accounting reference date, whichever is later.

The fee

£15 for the CIC report, on top of nothing else - the blank form is free.
Online: pay by debit or credit card in the Companies House CIC accounts service.
By post: enclose a £15 cheque payable to Companies House with the package.

You can file the report and accounts online through the Companies House CIC accounts service, which takes full accounts or package accounts prepared in accounts software. You will need your company number and authentication code, and director approval before you submit. If your accounts are not in a format the service accepts, the whole package goes by post instead.

Late is expensive, and the CIC34 can make you late

The accounts and the report are delivered as one package, so leave the CIC34 to the last minute and you risk the accounts going in late. It is the accounts that attract the penalty, and for a private company that is £150 up to a month late, £375 for one to three months, £750 for three to six months, and £1,500 beyond six months - doubled if you also filed late the previous year. Write the report before the deadline week, not during it.

Section by Section: What to Write

The Regulator sets four minimum requirements. Its guidance also says CICs "should aspire to provide the fullest possible information rather than simply comply with the minimum requirements" - which is the whole game. A report that clears the minimum is accepted; a report with numbers in it is worth showing a funder.

The examples below come from Greenway Community Garden CIC, a fictional CIC we made up so the level of detail is visible. Copy the shape, not the words.

What you did, and who benefited

The requirement is "details of what the CIC has done to benefit the community". Answer three questions in order: what you actually ran this year, how much of it, and what changed for whom. Past tense only - this is a report, not a plan.

Reach for anything you already count: sessions delivered, people through the door, meals, hours, kilos, referrals, survey responses.

Worked example - Greenway Community Garden CIC (fictional)

"Greenway Community Garden CIC maintains a 1.2-acre community garden in Openshaw, Manchester. In this financial year we ran twice-weekly open gardening sessions (98 sessions, average 14 attendees), delivered 6 school growing workshops reaching 170 children, and distributed approximately 800kg of grown produce free to residents through the Openshaw food pantry. These activities benefited local residents, particularly older people at risk of isolation and low-income families: regular attendees report improved wellbeing in our annual survey (41 of 52 respondents), and the produce distribution supplemented food support for around 60 households."

How you consulted your stakeholders

The requirement is "details of how it has consulted its stakeholders on its activities". This is the part most reports fumble, usually by naming no one and changing nothing. Three moves fix it: say who your stakeholders are, how you asked them, and what changed as a result.

A survey with 12 responses and one concrete change beats "we engage continuously with the community" every time.

Worked example - Greenway Community Garden CIC (fictional)

"Our stakeholders are garden members, session attendees, the two partner schools and the food pantry. We consulted them through: an annual paper and online survey (52 responses), a mid-year open meeting (19 attendees), and termly review calls with both schools. As a result of feedback we moved Saturday sessions to mornings and added a raised-bed area for wheelchair users. No stakeholder raised concerns about the company's activities."

What the directors were paid

The requirement is "details of directors' remuneration". Directors of a CIC may be paid: the Regulator's own guidance says "directors may be paid remuneration (which includes a salary) for their services to a CIC". The two conditions it attaches are that the pay is never "more than is reasonable" and that the arrangements are "always transparent" - and this section is where the transparency happens.

Name each paid director, the amount, and what it was for. If nobody was paid, write that down; a blank looks like an unanswered question. Also state any payment for loss of office, even if nil.

Worked example - Greenway Community Garden CIC (fictional)

"One director, A. Example, was paid £6,240 for the year for 8 hours per week of work as garden coordinator. No other director received remuneration. No compensation was paid for loss of office."

Transfers of assets

The requirement is information on the transfer of assets to another asset-locked body, or otherwise at less than market value for the benefit of the community. This is the asset lock showing its face once a year.

Most small CICs have nothing to report here, and the right answer is an explicit "none". If you did give away, sell cheaply, or transfer something, name the asset, the recipient, the value and why it served the community. Background: what the CIC asset lock is.

Worked example - Greenway Community Garden CIC (fictional)

"No transfers of assets other than for full consideration were made."

One more thing the four parts do not remind you about: the form carries your company name and number at the top and a signature block for a director at the bottom. Get it signed before it goes in with the accounts.

Get the worked CIC34 example (free)

The full Greenway example plus a filing checklist, as a PDF - no sign-up, just email.

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Want it written for you?

Answer plain-English questions about your year, get a drafted simplified CIC34 back to check and file with your accounts. £35 if we build it - founding-list members go first. (Not accounts preparation, and not for CICs that paid dividends or performance-related interest.)

Where CIC34s Go Wrong

Nobody marks your CIC34 out of ten. But it travels inside a filing package that has to be complete, and it is the one document where your CIC explains itself in public each year. Two different kinds of mistake follow from that, and it helps to keep them apart.

Things to get right before the package goes in

Sending it to the Regulator instead of filing it. It goes to Companies House with the accounts. On its own it is not filed.
Forgetting the £15. The fee is part of the package, not an invoice that follows later. Pay it at the same time as you file, by card online or by cheque with the post.
Leaving it unsigned. The form has a director's signature block. Check it is completed before the package goes anywhere.
Using the wrong version. A CIC that declared a dividend or paid performance-related interest needs the detailed report, not the simplified one.
Missing one of the four required parts. A blank remuneration section is the usual culprit. Nil is an answer; blank is a gap. Say no director was remunerated if that is the case.

Things that make it a weak report

None of these will get your filing bounced. They matter because the report is public, and because a funder reading your CIC on the register reads this.

Plans instead of history. "We will launch a youth programme" describes next year. The report covers the year that has finished.
Consultation with no one in it. "We consult our community regularly" names no stakeholder, no method and no outcome. Name all three.
Copying last year word for word. The report is public and cumulative. Identical text two years running tells any reader nothing happened.

One practical habit removes most of this: keep a running note through the year - session counts, attendance, feedback, decisions you changed - so that writing the report is transcription rather than archaeology.

Want it written for you?

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the CIC34 due?

It is delivered with your annual accounts, so it takes the accounts deadline. For a private company that is 9 months after the end of your accounting reference period. First accounts covering more than 12 months are due 21 months after incorporation, or 3 months after the accounting reference date, whichever is later.

What happens if it is late?

The report and accounts are one package, so a missing CIC34 can make your accounts late. Private-company penalties run £150 up to a month, £375 for one to three months, £750 for three to six months and £1,500 beyond six months, and they double if you filed late the previous year too.

Is there a fee?

Yes, £15 for the CIC report. Online you pay it by debit or credit card; by post you enclose a cheque payable to Companies House. The blank CIC34 form itself is free from gov.uk.

Do I file it with the CIC Regulator?

No. It is filed at Companies House with your accounts and appears on the public register. Posting it to the Regulator separately is a common mistake and does not count as filing.

What if the directors were not paid anything?

State that no director received remuneration in the period. Directors of a CIC are allowed to be paid for their services, provided the amount is reasonable and the arrangements are transparent, so an unpaid year is simply a fact to record, not something to leave blank.

Simplified or detailed - which do I use?

Simplified, almost certainly. gov.uk says the detailed report "is reserved for CICs that have more complex financial arrangements": a performance related interest paid on a debt or debenture, or a dividend declared or proposed by a CIC limited by shares.