The CIC34 Form: A Complete Filing Guide for Community Interest Companies

Every community interest company (CIC) must file a CIC34 community interest company report at Companies House every year alongside its annual accounts. If you are a CIC director staring at this obligation for the first time, this guide takes you through what the form covers, how to prepare each part, how to file it, and what causes filings to get sent back.

What the CIC34 form is

The CIC34 is the community interest company report. It is the document through which a CIC publicly demonstrates that it is genuinely pursuing its stated community interest objects. Filing it is a legal requirement under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005. Every CIC files one alongside its annual accounts at Companies House, using either the online WebFiling service or a paper form sent by post. There is a filing fee payable at submission; the current amount should be confirmed directly on the Companies House fees page before filing, as figures are updated periodically.

Unlike a charity, a CIC is regulated by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, which sits within Companies House. This matters practically: the CIC34 is reviewed by the CIC Regulator, not the Charity Commission. It also matters for tax: CICs do not receive charity tax reliefs and pay corporation tax in the normal way. There is no Gift Aid on CIC income, and no access to charitable business rate relief.

Who must file it and when

Every CIC, without exception, must file a CIC34. This includes CICs limited by guarantee, CICs limited by shares, and dormant CICs that carried out no activities during the year. There is no small-CIC exemption.

The CIC34 is filed at the same time as the annual accounts. For most CICs limited by guarantee the accounts deadline is nine months after the accounting reference date (the last day of the CIC's financial year). For CICs limited by shares the deadline is the same. The CIC34 and the accounts are submitted together as part of the same filing; you cannot file the accounts without the CIC34.

A dormant CIC still files. The community interest report may be very brief in that case, but the legal obligation does not disappear because the CIC was inactive.

What goes in the community interest report, section by section

The CIC34 is structured around the community interest report, which is the substantive account of how the CIC served its community during the year. The sections below reflect the standard structure of the form.

Section	What to write	Common mistake
Activities undertaken to pursue the community interest objects	Describe what the CIC actually did during the year: projects, services delivered, communities reached, outputs produced. Be specific. Generic descriptions ("we supported the community") are the most common cause of Regulator queries.	Copying last year's text verbatim without updating the dates and activities.
Consultation with those with a community interest in the company	Explain how the CIC engaged the people it exists to benefit. This can include surveys, advisory groups, public meetings, feedback mechanisms, or informal consultation. The key is that it was deliberate and documented.	Leaving this section blank or writing "not applicable" when some form of consultation almost certainly happened.
How directors' pay compares to employees' pay (if applicable)	Where the CIC has paid directors, explain the relationship between director remuneration and employee pay. This demonstrates the community benefit is not being siphoned to directors.	Omitting this section when directors were paid, on the assumption it only applies to larger CICs.
Asset lock statement	Confirm that assets have not been transferred other than for full consideration, as a gift to an asset-locked body, or with Regulator consent. The asset lock is a core feature of the CIC structure and the Regulator looks at this every year. See the CIC guidance on the asset lock and dividend cap.	Confusing the asset lock with a charity's permanent endowment rules. They are different regimes.
Dividends and performance-related interest (CICs limited by shares only)	State the dividends paid during the year and confirm they fell within the statutory dividend cap. If no dividends were paid, state that. CICs limited by guarantee leave this section blank.	CICs limited by guarantee completing dividend fields unnecessarily, or share CICs leaving the section blank when dividends were paid.

The form also asks for standard company information (CIC name, registered number, accounting period, director signature). These fields are straightforward but the CIC name and number must exactly match the Companies House register; any mismatch is a common rejection trigger.

How to file: online versus post, and the fee

Filing route	How to file	Fee	Processing
Online via Companies House WebFiling	Log in to WebFiling, select the CIC34 filing type, complete the community interest report on screen, and submit alongside the accounts. Payment is made at the point of submission.	Check the current fee on the Companies House fees page before filing.	Faster; the filing registers on the public record more quickly than postal filings and provides an immediate confirmation.
By post	Download the paper CIC34 form from the CIC guidance pages, complete it in full, and send it with a cheque for the filing fee to Companies House.	Same fee as online; check the current amount before sending.	Slower; allow additional time before the deadline to account for postal transit and manual processing.

Online filing is generally recommended. It removes the risk of a cheque going astray, provides an instant acknowledgement, and the Companies House system validates certain fields before submission, which can catch errors before they become rejections.

Common reasons CIC34 filings get rejected

The CIC Regulator can reject a CIC34 filing and return it for amendment. Common reasons include:

• Vague or generic community interest statements. The Regulator expects a genuine account of activities. "We supported people in our area" is not sufficient. Specific projects, services, or outputs are required.
• Name or number mismatch. The CIC name or registered number on the form does not match the Companies House register exactly. This includes capitalisation and punctuation differences.
• Missing consultation section. Directors assume this section only matters for large CICs. It applies to all CICs every year.
• Asset lock section incomplete. Leaving the asset lock statement blank, or failing to account for an asset transfer that occurred during the year.
• Dividend information missing for share CICs. A CIC limited by shares that paid dividends during the year but left the dividend section blank.
• No director signature. The form must be signed by a serving director. An unsigned submission is rejected automatically.
• Accounts and CIC34 not filed together. The accounts and CIC34 must be submitted as a single package. Sending one without the other causes the filing to be treated as incomplete.

CIC34 versus the confirmation statement versus the accounts

CIC directors often conflate these three filings. They are entirely separate obligations.

• The accounts (profit and loss, balance sheet, notes) are prepared under accounting standards and filed at Companies House. CICs are companies, so the Companies Act 2006 accounting framework applies.
• The CIC34 community interest report is filed alongside the accounts. It is specific to CICs and has no equivalent in standard company law. It demonstrates the CIC's community benefit delivery.
• The confirmation statement (formerly the annual return) is a separate filing that confirms the CIC's registered details are up to date: directors, registered office, persons with significant control (PSC) information. It has its own due date and its own fee. It is not part of the accounts submission.

All three filings are public once submitted. The confirmation statement and accounts are familiar to any limited company director. The CIC34 is the additional layer that sets CICs apart from standard companies.

Note that these filings are Companies House obligations. They are distinct from any reporting obligations that funders, grant-makers or commissioners may impose separately under contract.

What happens if you file late or not at all

Failure to file the CIC34 on time is a criminal offence under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004. In practice, the consequences escalate in stages:

• Late filing. Companies House will record the CIC as overdue. The CIC Regulator monitors compliance. While the Companies House late-filing penalty regime that applies to accounts does apply to CICs (with penalties increasing the longer the accounts are overdue), the specific penalty amounts should be verified against the current CIC guidance before relying on them, as they are subject to revision.
• Strike-off. If the accounts and CIC34 remain unfiled for a sustained period, Companies House can initiate a strike-off. Once struck off, the CIC ceases to exist as a legal entity and its assets vest in the Crown. Restoring a struck-off CIC requires a court application and is costly.
• Criminal liability. Every director of the CIC at the time of the failure can be personally liable. The offence does not require intent; the obligation is strict.

If you have missed a deadline, the priority is to file as soon as possible and to notify Companies House proactively. Do not wait for a reminder that may not come.

Getting the whole CIC filing package done for you

The CIC34 is often the filing that catches CIC directors off guard. It sits outside standard company secretarial work (which covers the confirmation statement) and outside standard accounting work (which covers the accounts). In practice it falls into a gap unless someone owns it explicitly.

The annual filing package for a CIC comprises the accounts, the CIC34 community interest report, and the confirmation statement. Handled together, these three filings are straightforward. Handled piecemeal, with different people responsible for each, the risk of something being missed or filed late rises considerably.

If you want the whole package managed as one job, our CIC accounting service covers all three filings. You can also read the broader guide to running a CIC in the CIC complete guide, or compare structures in our post on CIC versus charity: which structure is right for your organisation.