Companies House identity verification for freelancers with a limited company

If you freelance through your own limited company, Companies House now needs you to verify your identity. Your due date is your company's next confirmation statement.

If you also own the shares, the same personal code goes in a second time. That step uses a separate service and has its own 14 day window, so it's easy to miss. If you're a sole trader, none of this applies to you.

The rules come from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Companies House explains them in its guidance on when you need to verify your identity.

Who has to verify

Two roles need it: company directors, and people with significant control, usually shortened to PSCs. A PSC is someone who owns or controls a large enough share of the company, and the PSC guidance sets out the tests.

If you're the only director and own every share, you're both. Companies House treats the two roles separately, and that's where the two steps come from.

A sole trader isn't a company, so there's no director or PSC to verify. Nothing changes for you unless you decide to set one up.

When yours is due

Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. Existing directors weren't all due that day. The transition rules give each one a due date tied to the company's next confirmation statement, over a changeover that runs until 17 November 2026.

The confirmation statement is the yearly filing where you confirm the details Companies House holds on your company are still right. The first one after 18 November 2025 is where you give your personal code as director. If you're a director of more than one company, you give it for each of them.

One exception: if your company's confirmation statement was already overdue on 18 November 2025, your deadline was 2 December 2025.

To see your exact dates, search for your company on the Companies House register and open the People tab. Check both lists: Officers shows your director date, and Persons with significant control shows your PSC dates. If a date has passed and you haven't verified, verify straight away.

How to verify

You only verify once. Afterwards you get a personal code, a reference that belongs to you rather than the company. You use the same code every time Companies House asks. There are two ways to get it.

• Yourself, through GOV.UK One Login. One Login is the government's sign-in, and you may need to create an account. Verifying this way is free. You'll usually need photo ID, such as a biometric passport from any country or a UK photo driving licence. If you don't have that and you live in the UK, the service may let you verify with your bank or building society details instead. The verification guidance lists every accepted document.
• Through an authorised agent. An accountant, solicitor or other professional registered with Companies House as an authorised corporate service provider can verify you on your behalf. They may charge a fee for it.

Once you're verified, the code sits in your Companies House account under Manage account, as long as you sign in with the email address you verified with. If an agent verified you, the code came by email. Keep it with your company records: you'll use the same code for any new role, such as a second company.

Giving your code twice

Each role needs the code separately.

• As director, you give it in the confirmation statement.
• As a director who is also a PSC, you give it through a separate service, provide identity verification details for a PSC. The window opens the day after your company's confirmation statement date and lasts 14 days. A confirmation statement date of 20 March gives you 21 March to 3 April.

Filing the confirmation statement early doesn't move the PSC window. Its dates are on the register too, so read them there rather than working them out. If you file the statement and stop there, the PSC half is still outstanding.

If an accountant files your confirmation statement, ask whether they'll also do the PSC step. It's a separate filing, so don't assume it's covered.

If you miss it

Once your due date has passed, it's an offence to keep acting as a director without being verified, and your company commits an offence too. You can be fined.

There's a knock-on effect as well. Your company can't file its confirmation statement until every director is verified, so verifying late makes that filing late too, which is a separate offence. Companies House also says that in future it will publish a note against your name on the public register, and you won't be able to become a director of another company or register a new one.

The first prosecutions have happened. On 16 September 2026, three directors were convicted and fined at City of London Magistrates' Court, in the Insolvency Service's first cases. Each was also convicted because their company failed to file its confirmation statement on time. One had verified their own identity and was convicted for not stopping a co-director acting unverified.

If you're late, verify now and give your code in both places. If you're a PSC and can see you'll miss your window, you can ask Companies House for a 14 day extension, as long as you ask before the deadline passes.

Setting up a company now

Moving from sole trader to limited company? Verification now comes first. New directors need to verify to incorporate a company or to be appointed to an existing one, and each director's personal code goes into the registration filing. As the new company's PSC, you can give your code when you're added to the register or within 14 days of it.

So verify before you start the application, and have the code ready when the form asks for it. Our guide to sole trader or limited company covers the rest of that decision.

The bottom line

Look your company up on the register today and check both lists for your dates. Verify once through GOV.UK One Login, give the code with your confirmation statement, then give it again in the PSC service in the 14 days after your confirmation statement date. When both roles show as verified, you're done.