Filing Small Company Accounts

_As a Director of  a small limited company you have 9 months, from your accounting year end date to file your accounts with Companies House. However, if you are a new company you have 21 months to file your accounts from the date of incorporation of your company. You will get a reminder from Companies House about 6 weeks before your accounts are due. This reminder will be sent to your registered office address.

If you miss the deadline of filing your company’s accounts you will incur an automatic penalty. Please be aware that late filing of accounts or not filing the accounts may mean you could be prosecuted and may end up with a criminal record and a fine that could be as high as £5,000.  You may also be disqualified acting as a director.

Late filing penalties are as follows:

Missed Deadline by:                                                  Penalty


Less than 1 month                                                            £150

Over a Month but less than 3 months                             £375

Over three months but less than 6 months                    £750

Over 6 months                                                                       £1,500

The above penalties will be doubled if you are late in filing the accounts again in the following year.