COM130130 - Returns/notices: notices and returns: issue of notices and returns
The companyType of Company Type of Capacity Present Issued to Authorised Unit Trust T (Trustee) Trustee Branch of overseas company trading in the UK AF (Agent) The UK branch or agency Company in administration A (Company Administrator) The company Company in liquidation L (Liquidator) The company Company in Receivership R (Receiver) The company All other companies None The company
This subject is presented as follows.
COTAX issue of notice to deliver
Return reminders
Details of notices
COTAX issue of notice to deliver
The notice requiring a company to deliver a company tax return is a form CT603 and is known as the notice to deliver.
When COTAX issues a notice to deliver it specifies a period of not more than 12 months. This is a period ending on the same date as an Accounting Period (AP) on the COTAX record. Whether the specified period is an AP or not, the notice usually requires a company to deliver one or more returns. COM130070 explains the rules.
The effect of those rules is that a notice specifying a period of 12 months always requires a company to make a return in response to it. In some cases, the notice requires more than one return.
COTAX automatically issues a notice to deliver about one month after the end of an AP unless the address is RLS. For those cases, it will issue the notice when a valid address is put on the record, provided the AP ends less than four years earlier. COTAX also:
- records the issue of the notice, and the period specified on it (the specified period)
- creates the next AP on the COTAX record unless it has already been set up manually
The notice is issued to the company or other person or body acting in capacity (see below) and shows:
- the name of the officer of the Board of the HM Revenue & Customs office dealing with the company
- the HM Revenue & Customs office address
- the period for which a return or returns are required
A notice to deliver is not issued:
- to a dormant company
- to a company that has been struck off
- to a company with an address currently shown as RLS on the COTAX record
- for an AP that has a logged return
- for an AP greater than four years
Agents do not receive copies of notices to deliver. Instead, COTAX issues monthly lists to agents showing:
- details of their clients to whom notices have been issued
- the periods specified in the notices
Where HMRC has agreed that a company can be treated as exempt from mandatory electronic filing on religious grounds and the ‘e-filing exception’ signal is set on COTAX, the CT603 does not include a paper return as they are no longer printed. When such a company contacts you, download and print a CT600 form from the HMRC website, imprint it with the office stamp and post it to them.
Return reminders
COTAX issues a CT208 reminder 42 days before the relevant filing date (see Glossary) if there has been no payment and the return is outstanding, or a CT205 if a payment has been made but the return remains outstanding. From June 2025 the CT205 form will no longer be issued. See COM130070 for more information about filing dates.
Details of notices
Use function DPER (Display Specified Periods) to see the date that specified period notices were issued or re-issued.
Acting In Capacity
The following table shows to whom the notice to deliver is issued.
| Type of Company | Type of Capacity present | Issued to |
|---|---|---|
| Authorised Unit Trust | T (Trustee) | Trustee |
Branch of overseas company trading in the UK | AF (Agent) | The UK branch or agency |
Company in administration | A (Company Administrator) | The company |
| Company in liquidation | L (Liquidator) | The company |
| Company in Receivership | R (Receiver) | The company |
| All other companies | None | The company |
Please note that: Where a notice is shown in the third column as being sent to ‘the company’ it is addressed to the company at:
- the Registered Office address, if that address is RLS
- at any communication address held on the COTAX record
See: