Corporation Tax

You must pay Corporation Tax on profits from doing business if you run:

• a limited company
• any foreign company with a UK branch or office
• a club, co-operative or other unincorporated association, like a community group or sports club

Visit GOV.UK to find out current Corporation Tax rates and reliefs. You do not get a bill for Corporation Tax. There are specific things you must do to work out, pay and report your tax.

Visit GOV.UK for information on:

• registering for Corporation Tax
• keeping accounting records and preparing a Company Tax Return
• paying your Corporation Tax
• filing your Corporation Tax return by deadline

Accounting periods

Your 'accounting period' for Corporation Tax is the time covered by your Company Tax Return.

It cannot be longer than 12 months and is normally the same as the financial year covered by your company or association's annual accounts.

Visit GOV.UK to find out how to check your accounting period.

Profits you pay Corporation Tax on 

Taxable profits for Corporation Tax include the money your company or association makes from:

• doing business or "trading profits"
• inverstments
• selling assets for more than they cost or "chargeable gains"

If you company is based in the UK, it pays Corporation Tax on all its profits from the UK and abroad.

If your company is not based in the UK but has an office or branch here, it only pays Corporation Tax on profits from its UK activities. 

Stopping or restarting business

Visit GOV.UK to check what you have to do if:

• you are not doing business and qualify as dormant
• you restart your business

Corporation tax when you sell business assets

Your company usually pays Corporation Tax on the profit ('chargeable gain') from selling or disposing of an asset.

Assets could include:

• land and property
• equipment and machinery
• shares

Visit GOV.UK for more information on how to work out and report your gain.

Capital allowances when you sell an asset

When you sell or 'dispose of' an asset that you claimed capital allowances on, you have to include the value in your calculations for the accounting period you sell it in.

You 'dispose of' an asset if you:

• sell it
• give it away as a gift or transfer it to someone else
• swap it for something else
• get compensation for it (like an insurance payment if it's destroyed)
• keep it but no longer use it for your business
• start using it outside your business

Visit GOV.UK to find out how to work out the value of the asset disposal and how to include it in your Corporation Tax return.