A community interest company is a limited company first. Everything an ordinary private company owes Companies House, a CIC owes as well: annual accounts, a confirmation statement, and accurate director and PSC records. On top of that sits the community interest report on form CIC34 and a filing fee that ordinary companies do not pay.

CIC accounts and CIC34 filing in one paragraph

Each year you prepare accounts to the same standard as any small company, write a CIC34 explaining what the company did for the community and who it consulted, have the directors approve both, and send them to Companies House together with a £15 fee. HMRC is a separate job with its own timetable.

So there are three cycles running at once:

• Companies House: annual accounts and the CIC34, filed together.
• HMRC: the Company Tax Return with accounts and computations attached, due even if the CIC made no profit and paid no tax.
• Your funders: spend, budget and forecast reports on whatever cycle the grant agreement sets, usually quarterly or six-monthly.

The third has no statutory deadline, and it is the one that costs a CIC money when it slips, because a funder who cannot see where the last grant went is slower to release the next. Put all three on one sheet at the start of the financial year and work backwards from the earliest date on it.

The CIC34 is a public document by design. The Regulator uses it to check the company is still being run for the community, and anybody can download it from the register. Write it for a reader who knows nothing about you.

The report asks for:

• A description of the company’s activities during the year and how they benefited the community.
• Who you consulted about those activities, and what difference the consultation made.
• Directors’ remuneration for the year, named, including any benefits.
• Any transfer of assets for less than full value, with the reason.
• Dividends and performance related interest, where the company has either.
• A director’s signature and date.

Write the impact section with numbers

The weakest reports we read say the company ran workshops and engaged with the community. Give the numbers instead: how many sessions, how many people through the door, over what period, in which part of the city. A funder reading your register entry before a bid decision gets more from one honest paragraph with figures in it than from a page of description.

The consultation question catches people out too. It is asking who you spoke to outside the board, such as service users, a partner organisation, a school, or a community council, and what you changed as a result. If you genuinely consulted nobody, say so plainly rather than inventing something. Keep a short note through the year of sessions run and people reached, and the report takes an hour instead of a weekend.

There are two versions of the report, simplified and detailed. The majority of CICs complete the simplified one.

The simplified report

This covers companies limited by guarantee and share companies with straightforward finances: no dividends, no performance related interest. It asks for the activities, the consultation, directors’ pay and any asset transfers, and that is it. For a grant-funded CIC running a project in Cardiff with two or three directors, this is the one.

The detailed report

The detailed version is for companies with more complicated arrangements. You need it if the company has paid performance related interest on a debt or debenture, where the interest rate moves with the company’s results. For CICs limited by shares, the detailed report is also where you set out dividends declared or proposed for the year, and dividends declared in any of the four financial years before it.

Both the dividend cap and the interest cap exist to protect the asset lock. As the rules stand, aggregate dividends on shares are capped at 35% of distributable profits for the year, with unused capacity able to carry forward within limits. Companies House publishes completed examples of both reports and continuation sheets if you run out of room.

If you are filling in the detailed version, get someone to look over the financial sections before it goes in. The numbers there are read against your accounts, and a mismatch invites a letter. Check which version applies now, before you start drafting, because the two forms are laid out differently.

This is where most DIY filers lose an afternoon. CIC accounts cannot be filed through WebFiling. The ordinary route that works for every other small company stops at the CIC question, and people assume they have done something wrong.

The routes that do work:

• The dedicated Companies House CIC service. Sign in to or create a Companies House account, then file full accounts or package accounts with the CIC34 attached. You need the company number, the authentication code, and a debit or credit card for the £15 fee.
• Package accounts prepared in software. Accounts software that supports iXBRL package accounts will produce a ZIP file holding the accounts and the report together, which you upload through the same service.
• Paper. Print the accounts and the CIC34, have a director sign, and post them with the fee to the Registrar of Companies in Cardiff. Slower, and you lose the acknowledgement you get online, but it still works.

Two dates worth knowing

The joint service that let you file accounts with Companies House and the Company Tax Return with HMRC in one go closed on 31 March 2026, so those are two separate submissions now. From 1 April 2028, every company must file accounts using commercial software, and that applies to directors filing their own and to accountants filing for clients. Paper and the current digital services go.

One more trap: if you need to amend CIC accounts already filed, the amended version has to go in on paper. Check your authentication code works before deadline week, because a replacement comes by post to the registered office. See the Companies House guidance on filing accounts for the current detail.

Your accounts are due nine months after the end of your accounting reference period. First accounts after incorporation run longer, with a deadline of 21 months from the date the company was formed. The CIC34 goes in with the accounts, so the accounts deadline is the report deadline.

HMRC works on its own clock. Corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after the year end, and the Company Tax Return is due twelve months after it. The payment date lands before the filing date, which surprises people every year. A CIC with trading income and no reliefs owes corporation tax like anyone else, so do not leave the tax calculation until month eleven.

The confirmation statement is separate again, due once a year on its own anniversary, and it is not a substitute for accounts.

What happens if you are late

Companies House charges an automatic late filing penalty that rises in bands the longer the accounts are outstanding, and it doubles if you filed late the year before as well. The penalty applies to the accounts whether or not the CIC34 was ready, so filing the accounts on time matters even in a bad year.

There is a second cost that does not appear on an invoice. The register shows accounts as overdue in public, and the CIC Regulator can act where a company stops reporting. A funder running due diligence before releasing the next tranche looks at that page. Put your year end, the nine month date and your funder report dates in one calendar this week.

The format of the accounts is standard small company stuff. The judgement calls underneath are where a CIC differs from a corner shop.

Grant income and restricted funds

A grant that lands in March for a project running to September is not all March income. Money given for a named purpose carries conditions, and the accounts should show what is restricted and what the CIC can spend freely. Get this wrong and two things follow: a surplus on the face of the accounts that you do not really have, and a funder report that disagrees with your filed figures.

Directors’ pay

A CIC can pay its directors for work done, and the figure goes in the CIC34 by name. It also has to match the payroll records and the accounts. Three numbers, one answer.

The asset lock

Assets and profits stay in the company or go to another asset locked body. That constrains what you can do on a winding up, on transfers to connected parties, and on dividends. Anything moved out for less than full value gets reported.

Dormant and filleted accounts

A dormant CIC still files accounts and still files a CIC34. Small companies can file abridged or filleted accounts at Companies House, but funders often want to see the full set, so decide what you file with your next bid in mind. If you are unsure how your grants should be split, start with the restricted funds position before you touch the accounts.