Filing Your Accounts Late

Filing Your Accounts Late at Companies House: What It Costs, and Why On Time Is Worth More Than You Think

Today, 30 September, is the Companies House filing deadline for every private company with a 31 December year end. If yours is one of them and the accounts haven't gone in yet, stop reading and ring your accountant.

For everyone else, it's a good moment to talk about a deadline that's easy to underestimate. Late accounts don't look like a big deal until the penalty notice arrives. Filing on time is about far more than avoiding a fine.

When are your accounts due?

For most private companies, accounts must reach Companies House within nine months of the year end. First accounts work differently: if your first period is longer than 12 months, you have 21 months from incorporation or three months from the accounting reference date, whichever is longer.

"Reach" is the important word. Delivery means the accounts are actually received, in the correct format. It doesn't matter if you posted them the day before, or if the deadline falls on a Sunday or bank holiday.

What are the penalties?

Late filing penalties are automatic. There's no warning letter and no grace period. For a private company or LLP, they are:

• Up to one month late: £150
• One to three months late: £375
• Three to six months late: £750
• More than six months late: £1,500

And there's a sting in the tail. If you file late two years in a row, the penalty doubles. A company that's seven months late twice running pays £3,000 for the second year alone, for accounts that may show nothing unusual at all.

"But my accountant was ill"

You might assume a reasonable explanation will get the penalty cancelled. It usually won't. Companies House will only accept an appeal in genuinely exceptional circumstances, and its own guidance lists reasons that are unlikely to succeed on their own. These include the company being dormant, not being able to afford the penalty, relying on your accountant, your accountant being ill, the accounts being lost in the post, and a director living or travelling overseas.

Rejected accounts are a trap too. If Companies House sends your accounts back, for example because the balance sheet wasn't signed, and the corrected version arrives after the deadline, you'll still get a penalty. That's why "file on the last day" is a riskier strategy than it looks.

Even Companies House's own failures don't stop the machine. When several of its online filing services went down for four days in June, it confirmed that penalties would still be issued because the law requires them. Affected companies had to appeal.

It's not just Companies House

Many directors assume that filing accounts at Companies House deals with the tax side too. It doesn't, and this year it's even easier to get caught out. The joint HMRC and Companies House filing service closed on 31 March 2026, so accounts and the corporation tax return now have to be filed separately.

HMRC has also doubled its own penalties. For corporation tax returns due on or after 1 April 2026, a late return costs £200 immediately and another £200 once it's three months late. That's the first increase since 1998, and it applies even if there's no tax to pay.

So a company that misses both deadlines can end up with fines from two different bodies for the same year.

What else can go wrong?

The penalties are only the start. Not filing accounts is a criminal offence, and directors can be personally fined in the criminal courts. Unpaid penalties are passed to debt collectors and, ultimately, the County Court. And Companies House can start striking a company off the register if it believes it isn't complying.

The real benefits of filing on time

Here's the part that rarely gets said. Filing early isn't just defensive; it's genuinely good for your business.

Your public record is your reputation. Clients, brands and production partners increasingly check Companies House before signing contracts. An "overdue" flag next to your company name is a poor first impression, and it's visible to anyone who looks.

Lenders and credit agencies notice. Late or overdue filings can affect your company's credit profile. That can matter when you're applying for finance, leasing equipment or opening an account with a new supplier.

You know your tax bill in time to do something about it. For most small companies, corporation tax is due nine months and a day after the year end, the same point as the Companies House deadline. If your accounts are finished months earlier, you know the bill well in advance. You also have time to plan dividends, pension contributions and cash flow, rather than just paying whatever the number turns out to be.

Decisions get made on real numbers. For creative businesses with lumpy, project-based income, up-to-date accounts are how you know whether last year's growth was real, whether you can afford that hire, and what to price the next project at.

How I handle it

I don't treat the filing deadline as the target. My aim is to have your accounts finished well before it, so there's time to talk through the numbers, plan your tax, and deal with anything unexpected without a last-minute scramble.

If you're not sure when your next accounts are due, or you're already behind and worried about it, get in touch. It's far easier to fix before the penalties start stacking up.