Companies House filing deadlines and penalties

A reminder that you will have to pay penalties if you don’t file your accounts with Companies House by the appropriate filing deadline. Generally speaking, accounts will need to be filed nine months after a company’s financial year end.

The penalties for private limited companies are set out below. The penalties apply after the expiry of the various periods listed (after the filing deadline has expired).

Penalties for public limited companies are different.

The penalty is doubled if your accounts are late two years in a row.

You can be fined and your company struck off the register if you don’t send Companies House your accounts or annual return.

Appeal against a late filing penalty

If you want to appeal a penalty you must give a reason why you couldn’t file your accounts on time.

You must prove the circumstances were both out of your control and made it impossible for you to meet the deadline, if, for example, a fire destroyed your records a few days before your accounts were due.

According to Companies House you can’t appeal by claiming:

• your company is dormant
• you can’t afford to pay
• it was your accountant’s (or anybody else’s) fault
• you didn’t know when or how to file your accounts
• your accounts were delayed or lost in the post
• the directors live or were travelling overseas

You can send a letter to the address on the front page of the penalty invoice that Companies House send you, or send an email including the penalty reference to enquiries@companies-house.gov.uk. You should get a response within ten working days and the penalty will not be collected while your appeal is being considered.