CT600 figures different from the accounts period: which accounts do you send HMRC?
Short version. HMRC normally needs the full statutory accounts prepared for members for a period coinciding with or overlapping the CT600. Different CT600 dates do not mean you should cut the statutory accounts to those dates.
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1. Keep the accounts and tax periods distinct
Companies House accounts cover the statutory accounts period. The CT600 covers a Corporation Tax accounting period. The two can differ when trading starts later, stops earlier or an accounts period exceeds 12 months. The computation explains the figures used for that tax return.
CTM93180 explains that HMRC receives the full accounts prepared for members. A filleted Companies House copy, without the P&L, does not meet that requirement. The company and period must fall within the statutory accounts requirement in Finance Act 1998 Schedule 18 paragraph 11.
Boxes 80, 85 and 90
Box 80 indicates accounts for the same period as the return. Box 85 indicates a different period. Box 90 gives the reason when accounts are not supplied. In the supported later-end two-return shape, a second return wholly after the accounts uses the accompanying-return omission reason and has its own computation.
2. Check both documents
For fictional Elm Example Ltd, accounts run from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and the CT600 starts on 1 October 2024. The accounts keep the whole year. The CT600 uses the six-month figures and box 85. The amounts need not be the same.
In separate figures mode, the Companies House accounts tab supplies the statutory P&L and each CT600 tab supplies that return’s figures. The accounts tax charge uses the entered return tax, summed for two returns, less your confirmed Corporation Tax recoverable. The balance sheet remains your entered balance sheet.
Follow the separate figures guide. The enter-once route keeps its existing figure basis and divergent-date restrictions. It does not acquire independent statutory P&L entry.