Filing Statutory Accounts at Companies House

What you prepare and what you file

A company prepares statutory accounts for its members and, where required, HMRC. These include a balance sheet, profit and loss account and the notes required by its reporting framework. Eligible micro-entities have fewer disclosures; preparing a profit and loss account is still necessary even where it can currently be omitted from the Companies House copy.

Preparing abridged accounts and filing a copy with permitted omissions are different choices. Abridgement reduces certain detail and requires member agreement. Filleting omits permitted documents from the public filing copy. Under current rules, eligible small companies can omit the profit and loss account and directors' report from the Companies House filing. Micro-entities have their own simplified filing provisions.

For financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, the small-company limits are turnover of £15 million, balance-sheet total of £7.5 million and 50 employees on average. Micro limits are £1 million, £500,000 and 10 employees. Meet at least two, applying the first-year, subsequent-year, group and exclusion rules. Size alone does not make every company eligible for audit exemption.

Check the company and tax deadlines separately

A private company normally files accounts within nine months of its accounting reference date. For first accounts covering more than twelve months, the deadline is normally 21 months after incorporation or three months after the accounting reference date, whichever is later. Shortening a period, an extension or other circumstances can change the deadline. Check the date on the company register.

The first accounting reference date normally ends in the month of the first incorporation anniversary. You can apply to change it. Extensions are normally limited to once in five years and periods of up to eighteen months, subject to exceptions. Reducing the period can bring filing forward; check the separate three-month protection from notice of a shortening.

A Corporation Tax accounting period cannot exceed twelve months, so first company accounts may require two Company Tax Returns. The usual CT600 filing deadline is twelve months after the tax period ends, with special rules for long accounts and late notices. Tax is normally payable nine months and one day after the period ends; larger companies can pay by instalments.

How accounts are submitted now

Companies House currently accepts supported accounts through its web services, commercial filing software and paper. The joint HMRC and Companies House online accounts and Company Tax Return service closed on 31 March 2026. That closure did not close all Companies House web filing.

Company Tax Returns normally require commercial software, with accounts and computations tagged in iXBRL, subject to HMRC exceptions. A bookkeeping subscription does not automatically include statutory accounts preparation or both filing connections. Check what your product supports and retain filing acknowledgements.

What directors need to approve

Directors remain responsible for approving the accounts and meeting the filing duties when an accountant prepares them. Review the balance sheet, income and expenses, director remuneration, loans, dividends and required disclosures before signing. Micro-entity accounts have a statutory presumption of a true and fair view when the applicable minimum requirements are met.

Check that the signed accounts and filing copy cover the correct period. Keep the accounting records and approval evidence, and check that each filing was accepted. Uploading a file is not the same as confirmation that it has been accepted.

The accounts changes start on 1 April 2028

Companies House announced the revised timetable on 9 June 2026. From 1 April 2028, all companies must file annual accounts using commercial software. Web and paper accounts filing will close; web services will remain available for other filings, including confirmation statements and director changes.

Small companies and micro-entities will have to file profit and loss accounts, with an option to keep them off the public register. Details of the opt-out process are still to be confirmed. The reforms also remove abridged accounts, strengthen audit-exemption statements and require the component accounts and reports to be filed together. These are future requirements, not the rules for every September 2026 filing.

Identity verification is already a separate obligation for directors and people with significant control (PSCs). Someone who is both a director and a PSC must provide the personal code separately for each role. Check the specific deadlines in our Companies House identity-verification guidance.

Late filing penalties

For private company accounts, Companies House charges £150 up to one month late, £375 over one to three months, £750 over three to six months, and £1,500 over six months. The charge doubles where accounts are late in two successive financial years. Dormancy does not remove the filing duty, although specific subsidiary exemptions can apply. Appeals are possible in exceptional circumstances.

HMRC penalties are separate. For Company Tax Returns with a filing date on or after 1 April 2026, the flat-rate penalty is £200 within three months of the filing date and £400 when more than three months late. For the third and successive qualifying consecutive late returns, these become £1,000 and £2,000. Earlier filing dates use the earlier rates.

Tax-related penalties can arise when a return remains outstanding eighteen months after the accounting period ends, or at the filing date if later: 10% of unpaid tax when delivered within two years of the period end, rising to 20% afterwards. These periods run from the accounting period end, not eighteen months after the ordinary filing deadline. Check the determination and any applicable exception or appeal ground.

Correcting accounts after filing

Correct material errors through the appropriate amended-accounts process. As at September 2026, Companies House accepts amended accounts on paper, or through supported software where that software was used for the original filing. There is no general AA10 amended-accounts form.

The replacement must cover the same period. Mark paper accounts as amended and state that they replace the original, are now the statutory accounts and are prepared as at the original accounts date. The original remains on the register. Also check whether the tax return, tax calculation and information supplied to lenders need correction.

For full statutory preparation and filing support, see our year-end accounts service.

Checked 6 September 2026: software filing timetable, 2028 reforms, CT600 penalties and amended accounts.