Annual Compliance - UK Establishment

UK Establishment

As a UK establishment, your annual requirements include:

Filing of annual accounts at Companies House 

Accounts and documents that are filed with UK Companies House are available for public inspection in the UK.

The accounting documents required by Companies House will depend on local parent law, i.e. the country where the overseas company is incorporated. 

Either - If the law under which the overseas company is registered requires preparation and disclosure of audited accounts, a copy of those accounts must also be filed with UK Companies House. Please note, the parent company's figures must include the UK establishment. These accounts must be translated (if not in English) and both the original and translated version (if applicable) must be filed in the UK and certified as true and correct by a director of the parent company (even if it is already certified by a translator). They must be filed within three months from the date the documents are required to be disclosed in accordance with parent law. 

Or - If the law under which the overseas company is registered does not require preparation and disclosure of audited accounts, the overseas company must prepare accounts in accordance with the Overseas Companies Regulations 2009, and file a copy of these at Companies House. Typically, they must be filed at Companies House within 13 months of the year-end.

In this case, the Registrar may allocate a different accounting reference date (ARD) to the UK establishment. The ARD will be determined as the last day of the month when the UK presence was created. For example, if the parent company has 31 December as its year end but the company’s presence in the UK was created on 15 January, the ARD will be set as 31 January and the parent company will need to prepare the accounts to that date. It is possible to request a change of the ARD to match the parent company’s year end, but this request must be submitted and accepted at UK Companies House before the first set of accounts is due for filing in the UK. The ARD can be changed only for the current and/or immediately preceding ARD.

So - if the overseas company is not used to having its financial information made public, and this is a concern to your business, then it might be better to form a limited company in the UK. 

Corporation Tax compliance  

UK businesses currently pay 25% Corporation Tax on their taxable profits.  All businesses must submit a Corporation Tax return at HMRC within 12 months of the year-end. A computation of the tax liability should also be submitted with the return.

Corporation Tax must be paid within nine months of the company’s accounting year-end.

A UK establishment must also submit a copy of its group accounts, in English, with its Corporation Tax return.