Confirmation Statement (CS01): Deadline, Fee & How to File

A confirmation statement — form CS01 — is a statement by your directors that the information Companies House holds about your company is correct and up to date. It replaced the annual return in 2016, and every company must file one at least once every 12 months, including dormant companies and companies with no employees or income.

It is a short filing, but it is a legal obligation. Since identity verification came in, it is also no longer one you can safely leave to the last minute.

Why it matters

• It's a legal requirement. Failing to deliver a confirmation statement is an offence by the company and its directors.

• It can lead to strike-off. Companies House can start the process of striking a company off the register if statements are not filed.

• It is visible to everyone. An overdue confirmation statement shows on the public register. Investors, lenders and acquirers' solicitors check it.

• It is relied on by external parties. Banks, solicitors and other parties who need to know about your shareholder base rely on your confirmation statement filing. If it is incorrect or overdue, it can cause problems down the line.

When is a confirmation statement due?

Your confirmation statement runs on a 12-month cycle:

• Review period: the 12 months ending on your confirmation date. For a new company, the first review period runs from incorporation to the same date a year later.

• Filing deadline: within 14 days of the end of the review period.

Your confirmation date is shown on your Companies House register entry. For example, if your review period ends on 31 May, you must file by 14 June. Shareflo customers can also find it in their Shareflo platform.

You can file early, at any point in the review period. Your next review period then starts from the date you filed. Sometimes it can be helpful to file early if - for example - a lender wants to see an official source of your shareholder base, since it brings your public Companies House record in line with your actual cap table.

How much does a confirmation statement cost?

From 1 February 2026, the Companies House filing fee is £50 for online filing and £110 for paper filing. You pay once per 12-month period. So if you choose to file early, this doesn’t cost anything extra.

Before you start

Check the following before you begin:

• Director identity verification. Every current director must have verified their identity and must have a personal code. See the section below, because this is the most common reason a filing is refused.

• Your share information. If you allotted shares, transferred shares or had an option exercised during the year, your statement of capital and shareholder details will have changed.

• Your Companies House authentication code, if you plan to file online. If you don't have one, request it early. It is posted to your registered office and takes several days to arrive.

• Your deadline. Check your confirmation date on the public register, not the date you filed last year.

Important: the confirmation statement is made by the directors, who remain legally responsible for it being correct, even if an accountant or adviser files it for you.

What are you confirming?

A confirmation statement covers six areas. Check each one against your own records:

1. Registered office address and your registered email address. The registered email address is an email that Companies House can use to send important notifications. It does not appear on the public record.

2. Directors (and your company secretary, if you have one): names, correspondence details and appointment dates.

3. Details of any People with significant control (PSCs), or a statement that there are none.

4. Shareholders and statement of capital: your issued share capital by class, and the names of your shareholders.

5. SIC industry codes describing what your company does.

6. Statement of lawful purposes. Since March 2024, the person filing must confirm that the company's intended future activities are lawful.

Getting your Statement of Capital right

The most complex part of the Confirmation Statement is the shareholders and statement of capital. You must provide Companies House with a breakdown of shareholdings by shareholder and by share class. Any share allotments, option exercises, share transfers or share conversions since your last confirmation statement (and up to this statement’s period-end) must be included. And of course, the totals across each shareholder must equal the total by share class that you provide in your statement of capital.

Unfortunately, doing this via the Companies House webfiling service is quite a fiddly task if you have a lot of shareholders: each screen only shows 10 shareholders at once so it can be slow work tabbing between screens to try to track down the right shareholder to update their share counts.

If you use Shareflo for your confirmation statement filing, then this task is all done for you.

Director identity verification

Since 18 November 2025, Companies House has not accepted a confirmation statement until every director has verified their identity.

• New directors appointed after 18 November 2025 will already have verified their identity at the time their appointment was registered with Companies House. The same applies for all directors of companies which incorporated after 18 November 2025.

• Existing directors will first encounter the need to verify identity when their company first files a conformation statement after 18 November 2025

How directors verify. Each director verifies once, either online through GOV.UK One Login via Companies House, or through an authorised corporate service provider. They receive a personal code, which is used for every directorship they hold.

When you file your confirmation statement, you must supply that personal code for each unverified director. If you don’t have a personal code for an unverified director, your whole filing will be refused and your company can end up overdue. So before you start, ask every director for their personal code.

Important: you only need to provide a director’s personal code once for each role they have in your company. So if the code was already provided as part of their director appointment registration, or as part of a previous confirmation statement then there is no need to provide it again. Companies House remembers which directors are verified and which aren’t - you can check it by looking at the Officers page of your company’s Companies House page here.

For more detail, read the related article on Companies House ID verification at the bottom of this page.

How to file a confirmation statement

You can file from Shareflo, directly with Companies House online, or by post.

Option 1 — File from Shareflo (recommended)

Because Shareflo already holds your share register, officers and PSCs, the confirmation statement is prepared from your records rather than typed in from memory.

1. Go to Documents → Regulatory filings and open your upcoming confirmation statement. Shareflo shows your review period and filing deadline. You can file a confirmation statement for the end of your review period (i.e. 12 months from your last CS01) if that’s in the past, or for an earlier date if you like.

2. Review the pre-filled shareholder and statement of capital sections. Shareflo flags any difference between your share register and what Companies House holds and provides guidance on whether that is to be expected or not.

3. Check your directors, PSCs, registered office and SIC codes, and confirm each director has a personal code on record.

4. Confirm the statement of lawful purposes.

5. Select Check filing and resolve any errors. If any fee is due to Companies House, then we will collect it from you and pass it on to Companies House for you.

6. Select File with Companies House and confirm that the company has authorised the filing.

7. Follow the filing status in Regulatory filings. We will email you when Companies House accepts or rejects it.

Option 2 — File via Companies House Webfiling

1. Sign in to the Companies House online filing service with your company authentication code.

2. Select File a confirmation statement.

3. Update your statement of capital to align each share class’s share count to your cap table

4. Review the list of shareholders and their shareholdings, and make any corrections: add missing shareholders and adjust incorrect sharecounts

5. Check that your statement of capital matches your list of shareholder holdings. Companies house will block you if it doesn’t, but you will need to identify the discrepancies yourself.

6. Check your directors, PSCs, registered office and SIC codes, and enter the personal code for any director who needs one.

7. Confirm the statement of lawful purposes.

8. Pay the fee.

Option 3 — File by post

Companies House still accepts a paper confirmation statement. It is the slowest option, it costs £110 rather than £50, and paper forms are more likely to be rejected because of errors. We'd only recommend it if you can't file online.

1. Download the form from GOV.UK: Confirmation statement (CS01). Print it at full size on white A4 paper.

2. Complete the form, including the shareholder information and statement of capital sections. Each director's personal code, or their identity verification details, must also be provided if they haven't already been.

3. Enclose the £110 fee, with a cheque made payable to "Companies House".

4. Post the form to: Companies House, Crown Way, Cardiff, CF14 3UZ.

Important: your confirmation statement is only filed once Companies House receives it, not when you post it. If you are close to your 14-day deadline, don't use post.

For the full list of forms you can file online or upload, read the related article on Companies House forms at the bottom of this page.

What happens if you file late or not at all?

A late confirmation statement does not carry an automatic fixed penalty in the way late accounts do. That does not make it low-stakes:

• Failing to deliver it is a criminal offence by the company and its officers, and can lead to prosecution and fines.

• Companies House will begin the process of striking the company off the register.

• The overdue statement is visible on the public register and is easily spotted in due diligence.

If you have missed your deadline, file as soon as possible. The priority is to correct the record.

What happens after you file

If you filed online - either via Shareflo or via Companies House webfiling - then Companies House usually accepts the statement within a couple of days and you will receive a confirmation email. Once accepted:

• Your next review period starts.

• The statement appears in your filing history on the public register.

• Your Shareflo records and the public record are back in step.

If Companies House rejects the filing, they (or Shareflo as appropriate) will email you to explain why. Correct the issue and resubmit. The original deadline still applies, so act quickly.

If you filed by post, expect it to take noticeably longer. Paper forms are processed after they arrive, there is no way to track them through to registration, and any error means the form is returned and the whole cycle starts again. Companies House will not accept postal delay as an excuse for a late filing, so post it well before your deadline using a guaranteed delivery service, and check the public register for your new filing history entry before assuming it has been accepted.

Common mistakes to avoid

Leaving it entirely to your accountant. Directors are legally responsible for the statement being accurate, whoever files it.

Out-of-date share information. Failing to include shares allotted, transferred or options exercised during the year, but not reflected in the statement of capital.

Missing a director's personal code. One missing code blocks the filing for the whole company.

Waiting for the last day. If the filing is refused on day 14, you are already overdue. File early once the information is correct.

Troubleshooting

Companies House refused my confirmation statement because of identity verification. One or more directors have not verified their identity, or their personal code has not been linked to their role. Ask the director to complete verification and send you their personal code. Then refile using the code.

I don't know my confirmation date. It is shown on your company's public Companies House register entry and in your Shareflo compliance dashboard.

Can I file early? Yes, at any time during the review period. Your next review period then starts from the date you filed. The first time you file early you will need to pay for that filing, but this is merely bringing forward the fees that you would have paid at the end of the year. You should not be charged twice during a year.

Do I need to update Companies House between statements? Yes. Changes to directors, your registered office and share allotments have their own forms and deadlines. For example, an SH01 is due within one month of an allotment. But those filings don’t generally specify the names of shareholders. The confirmation statement is a yearly check, and brings the shareholders up to date; it’s not a substitute for those filings.

Is the confirmation statement the same as my annual accounts? No. Accounts report your finances and have a separate deadline. The confirmation statement confirms your company's details.