Do I need an accountant to file my limited company accounts?

The short answer is no. There is no legal requirement to hire an accountant to file your limited company's annual accounts or corporation tax return. You are entitled to do it yourself, and many thousands of directors have been doing exactly that for years.

But most articles on this topic are written by accountancy firms, so they tend to arrive at a different conclusion. This one isn't.

It depends on what kind of company you have

For a single-director limited company with straightforward finances — no employees, no VAT, no stock, no complicated expenses — filing your own accounts is perfectly manageable. The numbers are simple. The forms are structured. If you can read a bank statement and keep reasonable records, you have everything you need.

For a company that has grown more complex — multiple directors, employees, VAT registration, significant assets — the case for a professional accountant is much stronger. The filing requirements are more involved, the tax position is harder to get right, and the cost of mistakes is higher.

This article is about the first kind of company.

What you actually have to file

Every UK limited company must file two things each year, regardless of size or profit.

Annual accounts with Companies House. If you qualify as a micro entity, these are a simplified set of accounts under FRS 105 — just a balance sheet, with no profit and loss account on the public record. Most single-director service companies qualify easily.

A CT600 corporation tax return with HMRC. This reports your income, allowable expenses and tax liability for the accounting period. Unlike your Companies House accounts, it is not publicly visible. And unlike almost everything else in the filing process, it cannot be done on a spreadsheet or submitted via the government website. It must be filed electronically using HMRC-recognised software that produces iXBRL-tagged accounts and computations.

The part that trips people up

iXBRL is a digital format that packages your financial data in a way HMRC's systems can read. You don't need to understand it in detail, but you do need software or a service that handles it for you.

Until March 2026, HMRC provided a free tool called CATO — Company Accounts and Tax Online — that dealt with this automatically. It closed permanently on 31 March 2026. There is now no free government option for filing a CT600. If you've been self-filing using CATO, you need an alternative before your next deadline.

Your main options are commercial accounting software, a simple filing service, or a full accountancy package. We cover all three in detail — including what each costs and who each suits — in our guide to filing after CATO closes.

When you genuinely do need an accountant

There are situations where hiring a professional is the right decision regardless of cost.

Your company has employees. Payroll, RTI submissions and employer NIC calculations add real complexity that software alone doesn't always handle well.

You are VAT registered. Quarterly VAT returns, Making Tax Digital compliance and scheme selection all benefit from professional oversight.

Your company has made a loss to carry forward, has significant capital assets, or has a more complex expense structure. Getting the tax position right matters more when the numbers are larger.

You want ongoing business advice, not just compliance filing. A good accountant who understands your business can save more than their fee through better tax planning.

You're not confident in your own numbers. If your records are incomplete or you're unsure what belongs in your accounts, professional help is worth the cost.

The honest summary

If you run a simple single-director limited company with straightforward finances, you do not need a full accountancy package just to stay compliant. You need a reliable way to file your accounts and CT600 correctly and on time.

The CATO closure removed the free option. It didn't remove your right to self-file — it just means you need a different tool to do it. If you've decided you don't need a full accountant, see how annual-accounts.co.uk works — from £49.99 for a simple micro entity filing.