Companies must register with HMRC for Corporation Tax no later than 3 months after starting any kind of business activity. To register your company as ‘active’ for Corporation Tax, you will need to sign up for HMRC's online services by creating a Government Gateway user ID and password. You will then be asked to provide the following details:

• Company name
• Company registration number (CRN) – you can find this on your certificate of incorporation
• Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) – HMRC will send this to your registered office address 2-3 weeks after the company is formed. If you are using our address, we will scan and email this to you. You can also view this under the 'My Mail' section on your online Customer Dashboard
• Start date of trading activity – this will determine your company’s accounting period for Corporation Tax, which is normally a 12-month period that correlates with the financial year in your annual accounts
• Trading address - The main trading address where the majority of business activities are carried out - this will not be our Registered Office address, as you are not physically based at our address
• SIC code(s) - Principal business activities your company carries out - your Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code(s) must be used to identify these activities - these code(s) were picked when you formed the company.
• Accounting reference date (ARD) – this is the date the annual accounts are made up to, which usually falls on the anniversary of the last day of the month your company was formed.

When your registration is complete, HMRC will send information to your registered office by post. This will include the deadlines for paying Corporation Tax and filing a Company Tax Return and annual accounts.

You can find out more about Corporation Tax Registration here.