Community interest companies are a popular choice for social enterprises here in Belfast and across NI. They let you trade like a business while locking your assets and profits in for community benefit. The trade-off is a slightly longer list of annual paperwork than an ordinary limited company.
We recently had an enquiry from a CIC director who wasn’t sure what their company needed to file each year, and it’s a question we hear often. This guide sets out the full annual filing set for a CIC in Northern Ireland, the deadlines and penalties, and the mistakes we see most.
What is a community interest company?
A CIC is a limited company with extra rules designed for social enterprises. Its activities must benefit the community, and it has an asset lock that stops its assets being used for private gain.
Two bodies are involved:
- Companies House registers your CIC, just as it does any other company. CIC formation has been available in Northern Ireland since April 2007, and NI CICs register with Companies House in the normal way.
- The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (the CIC Regulator) decides whether an organisation can become, or continue as, a CIC. It works with a light touch and does not supervise individual CICs day to day, but it reads the annual CIC reports and acts on complaints.
A CIC is not a charity, and that difference affects both your accounts and your tax. More on that below.
The annual filing set at a glance
| What | Who it goes to | When |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory accounts | Companies House | 9 months after your year end |
| CIC34 community interest company report | Companies House (copied to the CIC Regulator), filed with the accounts | Same time as the accounts |
| Confirmation statement | Companies House | At least once a year, within 14 days of the end of your review period |
| Company Tax Return (CT600) | HMRC | 12 months after the end of your accounting period |
| Corporation Tax payment | HMRC | 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period |
Statutory accounts
Your CIC prepares annual accounts just like any private limited company. The directors approve them, then they go to Companies House and appear on the public register.
Most small CICs can take the small company exemptions that ordinary companies use, so the accounts filed at Companies House can be shorter than the full set you keep for the board and your funders. What a CIC cannot do is use those exemptions to skip the CIC report. Companies House is clear that you must file the CIC report regardless of your size or any filing exemptions.
The CIC34 community interest company report
This is the filing that sets a CIC apart. Every year, the directors must prepare a CIC report on form CIC34 and file it with the accounts. It goes on the public record and is copied to the CIC Regulator.
The report covers:
- What the CIC has done to benefit the community during the year
- How it has consulted its stakeholders about its activities
- Directors’ remuneration, such as the total pay of the directors
- Transfers of assets to another asset-locked body, or any assets transferred for less than market value
There are two versions. Most CICs use the simplified report. The detailed report is for CICs with more complex financial arrangements, such as those paying dividends or performance-related interest on loans.
The report does not need to be long, but it should highlight what you have actually achieved. The CIC Regulator encourages you to use it to showcase your work, and funders and local partners do read it.
The fee: Companies House charges £15 to file the CIC report and accounts. You can file online or by post. Fees are reviewed from time to time, so check the current figure on GOV.UK before you file.
Directors’ pay and the asset lock
Because the CIC34 asks about directors’ remuneration, anything paid to directors is out in the open. That is fine, CIC directors can be paid, but the figures in the report should match the accounts and your payroll records.
The asset lock is the other thing your accounts need to reflect. It means assets can only leave the CIC at full market value, or be transferred to another asset-locked body (another CIC, a charity or similar) named in your articles. Any transfer like this has to be disclosed in the CIC34, so it should be clearly recorded in the books.
If your CIC is limited by shares, there is also a cap on dividends. Under the CIC Regulator’s guidance, a CIC can pay out no more than 35% of its profits as dividends, with the rest reinvested or used for the community.
Confirmation statement and identity verification
Like every company, including dormant ones, a CIC must file a confirmation statement at least once a year. It confirms that the information Companies House holds is up to date and that your intended future activities are lawful. The online fee is £50 (£110 on paper).
Since 18 November 2025, identity verification has been a legal requirement for company directors and people with significant control (PSCs), and CIC directors are no exception. Existing directors give their Companies House personal code as part of the company’s next confirmation statement, and Companies House will not accept a confirmation statement until all directors have verified.
For a CIC with a volunteer-heavy board, this can take some organising. We can handle the process for you, and our guide to director ID verification in NI explains the steps.
Corporation Tax: a CIC is not a charity
This catches people out more than anything else. A CIC gets no tax breaks from its legal status. It pays Corporation Tax on its profits and files a Company Tax Return (CT600) with HMRC, the same as any other company. A CIC also cannot claim Gift Aid.
The key dates are:
- Payment: 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period
- Filing the return: 12 months after the end of your accounting period
Late CT600s carry penalties of £200 on day one, another £200 at three months, and then tax-based penalties at six and twelve months. If a return is late three times in a row, the £200 penalties rise to £1,000 each.
One point worth knowing: if your CIC gives its surplus to a charity, those donations can be deducted when working out profits for Corporation Tax. That can matter if your CIC works alongside a charity. We can help you plan for this.
Filing deadlines and late-filing penalties
A CIC is a private company, so its accounts and CIC34 are due at Companies House 9 months after the end of its financial year. For your first accounts, the deadline is 21 months after incorporation, or 3 months after your accounting reference date if that is later.
Companies House penalties for late accounts are automatic:
| How late | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 month | £150 |
| 1 to 3 months | £375 |
| 3 to 6 months | £750 |
| More than 6 months | £1,500 |
The penalty doubles if your accounts are late in two financial years in a row. For a small community organisation, that is money that should be going to your work.
Does a CIC need an audit?
Most CICs do not. For financial years starting on or after 6 April 2025, a small company can usually claim audit exemption if it meets at least two of these three conditions:
- Turnover of no more than £15 million
- Balance sheet total of no more than £7.5 million
- No more than 50 employees on average
Some companies cannot take the exemption, for example if they are part of a group that is not small. Funders can also ask for an audit or independent review as a grant condition, even where the law does not require one. Our article on when an NI company needs an audit goes into more detail.
Dormant CICs
A dormant CIC still has filing to do. Every CIC, dormant or not, must file a CIC report with its accounts, stating that it was dormant throughout the year. It must also keep filing confirmation statements, and if HMRC sends a notice to file, it must file a Company Tax Return showing it was dormant.
The CIC Regulator does not expect CICs to stay dormant for long periods. If yours has gone quiet for some time, it is worth deciding whether to restart it or close it properly.
CICs vs charities in Northern Ireland
Charities in Northern Ireland are regulated by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) and follow their own accounting framework and reporting rules. CICs are regulated by the CIC Regulator and Companies House instead. Charities have tax advantages that CICs do not, and in return face heavier regulation.
A CIC can convert to a charity in NI, but under current CIC legislation a Northern Ireland charity cannot convert to a CIC. If you are weighing up the two structures, or you run both, our guide to charity accounting in Northern Ireland covers the charity side, and our not-for-profit sector page sets out how we support both.
Common mistakes we see
- Forgetting the CIC34. Filing the accounts on their own, as an ordinary company would, leaves the CIC report outstanding.
- Assuming charity tax treatment. A CIC pays Corporation Tax and must file its CT600.
- Thin CIC reports. A report that says little about community benefit or stakeholder consultation is a missed chance, and it is what the Regulator and funders see.
- Directors’ pay that doesn’t match. Remuneration in the CIC34 should agree with the accounts and payroll.
- Undocumented asset transfers. Anything leaving the CIC below market value must be recorded and disclosed.
- Leaving director ID verification too late. An unverified director can hold up your confirmation statement.
How Arro Group can help
We work with community and not-for-profit organisations across Belfast and NI, and we know CIC directors are often giving their time alongside day jobs. Arro Group prepares your annual accounts and prepares and files your CIC34 community interest report alongside them, so the two go to Companies House together. We also keep your Companies House filings and confirmation statement on track, and file your Corporation Tax return on time.
If you run a CIC and want the annual filing taken off your plate, get in touch with our team for a friendly chat.
