The UK Limited Company Year-End Checklist: What to Do in the 90 Days Before Your Accounting Reference Date

By the time your accountant prepares your statutory accounts, the tax outcome is largely fixed. The decisions that move the number happen in the 90 days before your accounting reference date (ARD) — the day your financial year ends.

Know your dates

Note the order: you pay before you file. That is why an accurate estimate before year-end matters more than a perfect return afterwards.

90 days out: forecast the taxable profit

Pull a year-to-date profit and loss and extend it to the ARD. You need a rough taxable profit figure to know which levers are worth pulling. At 2026 rates the small profits rate applies to the first £50,000 of profit, with marginal relief tapering up to £250,000 — so a company sitting at £60,000 of profit has a much stronger incentive to bring expenditure forward than one at £20,000.

60 days out: the timing levers

Anything genuinely incurred before the ARD lands in this year's accounts. Consider whether it makes commercial sense to bring forward:

• Equipment and IT — capital allowances are claimed in the period the asset is brought into use, not when it is paid for.
• Employer pension contributions — deductible in the period paid, so the cash must leave the company before the ARD.
• Staff bonuses — deductible if paid within nine months of the ARD, but the obligation must exist at year-end.
• Repairs and maintenance — revenue repairs are deductible now; improvements are capital.
• Professional subscriptions, training, software renewals — genuine business costs you were going to incur anyway.

Do not spend money purely to save tax. Spending £1,000 to save £250 leaves you £750 worse off unless you needed the thing.

45 days out: clean up the balance sheet

• Director's loan account. If the company owes you money, consider repaying it tax-free. If you owe the company more than £10,000, plan repayment within nine months of the ARD to avoid the s455 charge, and check for a benefit-in-kind on the interest-free balance.
• Stock. Count it and write down anything obsolete — write-downs reduce taxable profit.
• Bad debts. Review the aged debtors list. A specific provision against an invoice you genuinely will not collect is deductible; a general "10% of debtors" provision is not.
• Accruals and prepayments. Make sure costs incurred but not yet invoiced are recognised.

30 days out: director pay and dividends

• Confirm your salary has been run through payroll for the full year at the level you intended.
• Check distributable reserves before declaring a final dividend — a dividend paid out of insufficient reserves is unlawful and can be reclaimed.
• Consider whether an employer pension contribution beats a dividend: pension contributions are deductible for Corporation Tax and carry no NIC, while dividends are paid from post-tax profit.
• If a spouse or family member genuinely works in the business, make sure their pay is commercially justifiable and actually paid.

14 days out: assemble the records

Your accountant will ask for these anyway. Having them ready cuts fees and turnaround time:

1. Bank statements covering the full year, all accounts, including savings and merchant accounts
2. Sales invoices and a closing aged debtors list
3. Purchase invoices and a closing aged creditors list
4. Loan and finance agreements with balances at the ARD
5. Stock valuation at cost
6. Payroll year-end reports and pension submissions
7. VAT returns filed during the year plus the closing VAT control balance
8. Details of any assets bought or sold, with invoices
9. Explanations for any director's loan movements

After the ARD: the two things that still matter

• Reconcile before you file. Bank, VAT and payroll control accounts should agree to external evidence. Most Corporation Tax enquiries begin with a mismatch.
• Pay on time. Corporation Tax interest runs from nine months and one day after the ARD. If cash is tight, tell HMRC before the due date.

Should you change your year-end?

You can shorten your accounting period as often as you like and extend it once every five years (to a maximum of 18 months). A genuine reason to move it: aligning with a seasonal trading pattern so the accounts show a full trading cycle, or shifting a profit spike into a period with more available reliefs. It is not a tax trick — but for seasonal businesses it makes reporting far more meaningful.

The bottom line

A year-end is a deadline for reporting, but a decision point for tax. Book 90 minutes into the diary three months before your ARD, work through this list, and the version of you that files in nine months will have far fewer regrets.