As the director of a Limited Company you may be looking at accountant fees and thinking “I can’t afford that, I’m going to do this myself”, and with the world being so ruddy expensive we completely understand why you’d think this.
It’s natural to wonder: can I file company accounts without an accountant? The short answer is yes, but the real question is whether you should.
DIY filing with Companies House and HMRC
In theory, you can submit your own accounts to Companies House and send your corporation tax return off to HMRC.
Doing it the DIY route is going to get harder from April 2026 as the online filing service provided for free by companies house is closing. You’ll need to use commercial software after this date to DIY it.
Outside of the need for software, there’s a lot of reasons for why we’d suggest you don’t DIY your accounts and corporation tax returns, and it’s not just because we want you to pay us to do them.
Why DIY Accounts Often Cause Problems
If you want a mortgage on your home, lending into your business, loans personally, those lenders are going to want accounts prepared and signed off by an accountant. Very few, if any, lenders are going to accept accounts you have prepared yourself.
And if you have prepared them yourself but then want an accountant to sign them off to enable you to get lending, you’re going to struggle to find an accountant that will do this without recreating the accounts and therefore charging you the full fee anyway.
The risks of DIY company accounts
Do you understand depreciation, capital allowances and marginal relief? Do you know what to do if your balance sheet doesn’t balance? Do you know confidently what that means? Do you know what disclosures you’re legally required to have on your accounts? Do you know why you have two corporation tax returns for your first year’s accounts? Are you absolutely certain that meal out is wholly and exclusively a business expense?
Being brutally honest, 99% of the DIY company accounts we see are wrong. The mistakes range from minor issues to years of accounts that have been submitted with massive errors. The accountant fees to fix these are often double what would have been charged as we have to unpick the mess and redo.
Beware HMRC investigations of small businesses
HMRC are also on the warpath cracking down on small businesses. The deficit in the HMRC budget and the need for more money in the country means small businesses are getting targeted and compliance checks are on the rise. Absolutely we’d love them to focus on getting big businesses to pay what they should, but that’s an entirely different subject.
If HMRC picks your accounts to look into and you’ve prepared them yourself, are you confident dealing with an HMRC investigator? Can you justify everything you’ve done in your accounts, and are you ready to deal with HMRC policies, language, and everything else they’ll throw at you?
With an accountant you have someone ready to deal with this on your behalf. And HMRC are far less likely to find anything as we’ll have done things properly to start with.
Get Support With Your Limited Company Accounts
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Feeling less sure about that DIY job on your limited company accounts? Why not book in for a chat.
