What a CIC has to file
You file everything an ordinary company files — a tax return to HMRC, accounts to Companies House — and one thing more: the CIC34 community interest report.
It goes in with your accounts, covering the same year, along with a £15 fee. Every CIC has to send one, however small the company.
There are no figures in it. It asks what your company did, how that benefited the community, whether you talked to the people you serve, whether directors were paid, and whether you gave anything away below its value. Most companies find the short version is all they need.
Why OneFiler cannot file it yet
Nothing is stopping this at Companies House — they accept CIC filings from software perfectly happily. It is simply something we have not built yet.
Sending a CIC filing means preparing the CIC34 as a second document and submitting it together with the accounts, and it has to be approved by Companies House before it can be used for real filings.
It is on our list, and we will email you as soon as it is ready.
What you can do today
Carry on and file your Corporation Tax return here as normal. A CIC pays Corporation Tax like any other company, and HMRC has no interest in the CIC34 — that is purely a Companies House form.
Send your accounts and CIC34 straight to Companies House instead, either through their own CIC service or on paper, with the £15 fee.
Keep an eye on both dates. Your accounts are due nine months after your year end, your tax return twelve months after, so Companies House will always be the one to watch first.
If you file micro-entity accounts
A small CIC can prepare micro-entity accounts, and they are perfectly valid.
One thing to know: Companies House’s own online CIC service only takes the fuller small-company format, so if yours are micro-entity you will need to send them on paper. Software filing has no such restriction, which is another reason we want to support it.
Whichever format your accounts are prepared in is the one you have to file — you cannot switch at the last minute.