Guide

Annual report vs 10-K: what is the difference?

Last updated: 6 October 2026

Many companies listed in the United States publish two documents a year that people call “the annual report”: the Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and an annual report to shareholders. They overlap, but they are different documents, and they are not interchangeable for every purpose.

The Form 10-K

The 10-K is the annual report that US companies with securities registered with the SEC must file under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Its structure is fixed: numbered items in four parts, among them

Item 1, Business: what the company does, its segments and its markets;
Item 1A, Risk Factors: the material risks the company sees;
Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis: management's explanation of the results;
Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data: the audited financial statements and notes.

The deadline depends on the company's size as a filer: 60 days after the fiscal year ends for large accelerated filers, 75 days for accelerated filers and 90 days for everyone else. Every 10-K is public on the SEC's EDGAR database, and the fixed structure makes them comparable from one company to the next.

The annual report to shareholders

SEC rules require a company to send shareholders an annual report with, or before, the proxy statement for an annual meeting at which directors are elected. Its form is up to the company. Many make it a designed document with a letter from the chief executive, the highlights of the year and the strategy; others put a cover and a letter around the 10-K itself, sometimes called a “10-K wrap”. It usually appears around the same time as the 10-K, often a few days or weeks later.

Companies outside the United States

Form 20-F: the annual report of a foreign private issuer listed in the United States, due within four months of the end of its fiscal year. Its role is close to a 10-K's.
The European Union: listed companies publish an annual financial report within four months of the year end, under the Transparency Directive, in the European Single Electronic Format. Most present it as their annual report; in France it is often part of the Universal Registration Document.
Integrated reports: some companies, notably in Japan and South Africa, combine financial and sustainability information in one integrated report, which is their annual report.

Which one do you need?

For standardised risk factors, segment detail and audited statements that compare across US companies: the 10-K.
For the strategy, the chief executive's view and how the company presents itself to investors: the annual report.
For a complete picture of a large US company: both. They are usually published within weeks of each other.

How Report Scout lists them

“10-K” and “Annual” are separate report types on Report Scout, so a company page shows the 2025 10-K and the 2025 annual report side by side. When a page names the latest annual report, it prefers the annual report to a filing of the same year, and says “annual filing” when a 10-K or 20-F is all that is listed. An alert can follow either or both.

Examples on Report Scout

Companies whose 10-Ks Report Scout holds, those with the most reports first. Each page lists the documents by year, with links to the originals. All of them: 10-Ks on Report Scout.

More guides

How Report Scout finds, checks and dates the reports it lists is described on the methodology page.