If you are a director of a close company, your 2025/26 Self Assessment tax return now asks for four extra details about that company: its name, its registered number, the dividends it paid you, and your percentage shareholding. The change comes from The Income Tax (Additional Information to be included in Returns) Regulations 2025 and applies to returns for the 2025/26 tax year onwards, which you file by 31 January 2027.
Most owner-managed limited companies in the UK are "close" companies, so this reaches a large share of company directors, including one-person contractor companies. Here is exactly what the new boxes ask, who has to complete them, and how to avoid the penalty for leaving them out.
What has changed for close company directors in 2025/26?
From the 2025/26 tax year, directors of close companies must report extra information on the employment pages (SA102) of their Self Assessment return: the close company's name and registered number, the dividends it paid them, and their highest percentage shareholding in the year. None of this was asked for directly before.
The requirement comes from The Income Tax (Additional Information to be included in Returns) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/84), which came into force on 6 April 2025. That makes the 2025/26 return, due online by 31 January 2027, the first one affected. HMRC has added the new boxes to the SA102 employment supplementary page.
What is a close company?
A close company is a UK company controlled by five or fewer participators (broadly, shareholders), or by any number of participators who are also directors. That definition, set out in the Corporation Tax Act 2010, captures the vast majority of small and owner-managed companies, including most family companies and single-director contractor companies.
A participator is simply someone with a share or interest in the company, usually a shareholder. Because the test is about a small number of people being in control, the typical one-director, one-shareholder company is close, and so is a husband-and-wife company or a small group of co-founders. You can read the statutory meaning on legislation.gov.uk. If you are unsure how your own shares and director role interact, our guide to the difference between shareholders and directors sets out the basics.
Which boxes do you now complete on the SA102?
HMRC has added boxes to the SA102 employment page. Box 6 asks whether you were a director in the tax year, box 7 asks whether the company is a close company, and boxes 7.1 to 7.4 capture the company's name, its registered number, the dividends you received from it, and your highest percentage shareholding during the year.
| Box | What it asks | What to enter |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Were you a director of the company in the tax year? | Yes or No |
| 7 | Is the company a close company? | Yes or No |
| 7.1 | Name of the close company | The registered company name |
| 7.2 | Registered number of the close company | The 8-character Companies House number (CRN) |
| 7.3 | Dividends received from the close company | The amount for the tax year (enter 0 if none) |
| 7.4 | Percentage shareholding in the close company | The highest percentage held during the year (enter 0 if none) |
You complete a separate SA102 for each company where you were a director, so if you direct two companies you fill in two sets of these boxes. Where the figure is nil, enter 0 rather than leaving the box blank.
Worked example: a one-person contractor company
Priya is the sole director and 100% shareholder of her IT contracting company. In 2025/26 the company paid her £40,000 in dividends. On her SA102 she enters: box 6 Yes, box 7 Yes, box 7.1 the company's registered name, box 7.2 its 8-digit Companies House number, box 7.3 £40,000, and box 7.4 100.
If she had gifted 10% of the shares to her spouse part-way through the year, box 7.4 would still show the highest percentage she held during the year, not the figure at 5 April. The £40,000 in box 7.3 is taxed under the normal dividend rules, after the £500 dividend allowance, at the 2025/26 dividend rates of 8.75% (basic), 33.75% (higher) and 39.35% (additional) per gov.uk. Our dividend tax rates and allowances guide shows how those bands work in practice.
Do unpaid or zero-shareholding directors still report?
Yes. Even if you are an unpaid director, took no dividends, or hold no shares at all, you still complete the new boxes. Where a figure is nil you enter 0 rather than leaving it blank. The requirement is tied to being a director of a close company, not to being paid or to owning shares, so a non-shareholding director still has to answer.
This catches people who sit as a director as a favour, or who hold a board role in a family company without any shares. The admin is light in those cases, a few zeros, but it still has to be done on each relevant SA102.
What happens if you do not provide the information?
If you do not include the required close company information, HMRC can charge a £60 penalty under the 2025 regulations. It is a modest fixed amount rather than a percentage of tax, but it signals that HMRC now treats this disclosure as mandatory, and the data feeds its wider checks on how owner-directors take profit out of their companies.
The £60 is separate from the usual Self Assessment penalties for filing or paying late, which start at £100 and build from there. If you are at risk of missing the deadline entirely, read our guide to the Self Assessment late filing penalty and HMRC's penalty rules.
How does this fit the rest of your director tax?
The new boxes do not change how much tax you pay; they standardise what you disclose. Dividends from your company are still taxed at the dividend rates after the £500 allowance, and an overdrawn director's loan can still trigger a separate company tax charge. The change simply gives HMRC a clearer, company-by-company picture of each director.
If you take money out as a loan rather than salary or dividends, the reporting of that is unchanged for now, but it is worth understanding the rules, as our explainer on the director's loan account covers. Keeping clean records of dividends and shareholdings through the year is the practical takeaway, because you now have to put those exact figures on your return.
Is more director reporting on the way?
Possibly. HMRC has consulted on making close companies report payments to their participators, such as loans, dividends and transfers of assets, directly to HMRC. That is a proposal rather than law, and nothing extra is required yet, but it points to a clear direction of travel toward closer scrutiny of owner-managed companies.
You can see the detail in HMRC's consultation on reporting company payments to participators. For most directors the message is the same either way: keep tidy records now, because the disclosures are only getting more detailed.
What should directors do before they file?
Gather four things for each company you direct: its exact registered name, its Companies House number, the total dividends it paid you in 2025/26, and your highest percentage shareholding during the year. Having these ready before you start your return turns the new boxes into a two-minute job rather than a filing-day scramble.
If 2025/26 is your first year in Self Assessment, you also need to register by 5 October 2026, then file and pay by 31 January 2027, as our Self Assessment deadline guide and gov.uk explain. If you would rather not think about boxes 7.1 to 7.4 at all, our Self Assessment service and our accounting for limited companies handle the return end to end. Book a free call with a Zmartly accountant and we will make sure every company you direct is reported correctly.
Frequently asked questions
Which directors are affected by the new 2025/26 reporting rules?
Any individual who was a director of a close company at any point in the 2025/26 tax year and has to file a Self Assessment return. Because most small and owner-managed UK companies are close companies, this covers the majority of company directors, including sole directors of contractor companies.
What do boxes 7.1 to 7.4 on the SA102 ask for?
Box 7.1 is the close company's registered name, box 7.2 is its Companies House registration number, box 7.3 is the dividends it paid you in the year, and box 7.4 is your highest percentage shareholding during the year. You enter 0 in 7.3 or 7.4 where the figure is nil.
Do I report if I am an unpaid director with no shares?
Yes. The new boxes apply because you are a director of a close company, regardless of whether you are paid or hold any shares. You still complete the boxes and simply enter 0 for the dividends and the percentage shareholding where those are nil.
Is there a penalty for not reporting close company details?
Yes. HMRC can charge a £60 penalty under the 2025 regulations if you do not provide the required close company information on your return. That is separate from the standard penalties for filing or paying your Self Assessment late.
Do I need a separate SA102 for each company I direct?
Yes. You complete a separate SA102 employment page for each company where you were a director in the tax year, so a person who directs two close companies fills in two sets of boxes 6 to 7.4, one for each company.
