TAX GUIDE

Do company directors need a Self Assessment return?

Being a director does not, on its own, mean you must file a Self Assessment tax return. What matters is the income you receive and whether HMRC has asked you to file. This guide sets out the tests, the dates and what to do next.

Figures for the 2026/27 tax year · Last reviewed 21/10/2026

The short answer

A director is an officer of the company. If the company pays you a salary, that salary runs through payroll and tax is taken under PAYE, like any other employee. If that salary is your only income, you usually have nothing extra to report.

GOV.UK's list of people who must send a return does not include company directors as a group. The need to file comes from something else in your tax affairs. For most directors, that something is dividends.

When a director does need to file

You must send a return if HMRC writes to you and asks for one. Beyond that, check the triggers below against the last tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April.

Dividends over £10,000. If your dividends for the year are over £10,000, you need to fill in a Self Assessment return.
Self-employed income. You were also a sole trader and earned more than £1,000 before expenses.
A partnership. You were a partner in a business partnership.
Capital Gains Tax. You had to pay Capital Gains Tax on something you sold or disposed of, such as shares or a second property.
High Income Child Benefit Charge. You had to pay the charge and do not pay it through PAYE.
Other untaxed income. Rental income, savings interest or foreign income may also need reporting.

If any of these applied, the return for the year is required whatever your role in the company.

Why dividends are the usual trigger

Many directors are also shareholders. A common pattern is a modest salary through payroll, with further profit taken as dividends. The thinking behind that mix is covered in our guide to paying yourself as a limited company director.

Salary is taxed before it reaches you. Dividends are not. The company pays them out of profit that has already borne Corporation Tax, and no Income Tax is taken off at the point of payment. Any tax due on them has to be collected some other way.

For 2026/27, everyone gets a £500 dividend allowance. Dividends above that, and above any Personal Allowance you have not used, are taxed at these rates:

Basic rate: 10.75%
Higher rate: 35.75%
Additional rate: 39.35%

Which rate applies depends on where the dividends fall once your salary and other income are added up. Our dividend tax rates guide walks through the bands in detail.

The £10,000 line for dividends

HMRC treats dividend income differently either side of £10,000.

Dividends within the £500 allowance

You do not need to tell HMRC. There is no tax to pay on them.

Dividends up to £10,000

If you already send a return, the dividends go on it. If you do not, you must tell HMRC after the tax year ends on 5 April and before 5 October. You can ask HMRC to change your tax code so the tax comes out of your salary, or you can contact the HMRC helpline. You can also choose to report through Self Assessment.

Dividends over £10,000

You need to fill in a Self Assessment return. If you do not normally send one, you must register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you received the dividends.

Dates for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 returns

The return you are working on in autumn 2026 is for the 2025/26 tax year, which ended on 5 April 2026. For that year:

Register if new to Self Assessment: by 5 October 2026
Paper return: HMRC must receive it by 11:59pm on 31 October 2026
Online return: by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027
To pay through your tax code: submit online by 11:59pm on 30 December 2026
Tax due: by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027

Dividends you take in the current 2026/27 tax year follow the same pattern a year later. The registration deadline is 5 October 2027 and the online return is due by 31 January 2028.

Payments on account

Directors filing for the first time are often caught out by payments on account. These are advance payments towards next year's bill. Each one is half of the tax you owed for the year just reported, and they are due on 31 January and 31 July.

You do not have to make them if your last bill was under £1,000, or if more than 80% of last year's tax was paid outside Self Assessment, for example through PAYE. Dividend tax is not taken at source, so a director with large dividends will often meet neither test.

A worked example

This example is hypothetical and assumes a taxpayer outside Scotland with no other income. A director takes a salary of £12,570 and £30,000 of dividends in 2026/27.

The salary uses the Personal Allowance. The basic rate band runs from £12,571 to £50,270, which leaves £37,700 of room, so all the dividends fall in the basic rate band. The first £500 is covered by the dividend allowance. The remaining £29,500 is taxed at 10.75%, giving £3,171.25.

The dividends are over £10,000, so a return is needed. The director registers by 5 October 2027 and files online by 31 January 2028. Because the bill is over £1,000 and none of it was taken at source, payments on account apply. On 31 January 2028 the director pays the £3,171.25 plus a first payment on account of about £1,586 towards 2027/28. The second payment on account, of about the same amount, is due on 31 July 2028.

What happens if you miss the deadline

Late filing penalties start the day after the deadline:

An initial £100 penalty
After 3 months, £10 a day, up to a maximum of £900
After 6 months, a further 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater
After 12 months, another 5% or £300, whichever is greater

Paying late is a separate problem. A penalty of 5% of the unpaid tax applies at 30 days, 6 months and 12 months, and interest is charged on the amount owed. If HMRC has asked you to file and you believe you no longer need to file, contact HMRC and explain why, rather than ignoring the notice.

Personal return or company return?

Your Self Assessment return covers you as an individual. It is not the company's return. The company has its own obligations: annual accounts for Companies House, and a Company Tax Return for Corporation Tax. Our guide to the company tax return and company accounts explains how those two fit together.

The two are linked in practice, though. The salary and dividend figures on your personal return should match what the company paid and recorded. Dividends can only be paid out of available profits, so the company's books need to show that the profit was there. For more on a director's wider role, see the duties of a managing director.

A quick checklist

Has HMRC asked you to send a return? If so, you must file.
Were your dividends for the year over £10,000? If so, you must file.
Were your dividends between £500 and £10,000? Tell HMRC by 5 October, through your tax code, the helpline or a return.
Did you have rental, self-employed, partnership or foreign income, or a capital gain to pay tax on? Check whether these need a return.
Is salary through payroll your only income? You probably do not need to file.

If you are unsure, GOV.UK has a tool to check whether you need to send a return, and HMRC can confirm your position.

Records that make the return easier

A director's return is only as good as the figures behind it. You will need the total salary and tax from your payslips or P60, the dates and amounts of every dividend, and details of any other income. Dividend vouchers and board minutes should agree with the company's books. Our guide on how long to keep business records covers what to hold on to.

When the company's bookkeeping is current, these figures are easy to pull together. When the books are months behind, it can be hard to tell how much profit was available when a dividend was paid, or whether money taken out was a dividend at all.