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Under the provisions introduced by the Companies Act 2006 the time limit for private companies to file their accounts with the Registrar of Companies at Companies House has been shortened from ten months following the end of the accounting period to nine months. This brings the deadline for filing the accounts at Companies House into line with the payment deadline for Corporation Tax.
The deadline for public companies has been shortened from seven months to six months.
The changes will apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 6th April 2008 and will therefore not come into effect for many companies until the end of their current financial year.
In addition to the change to the filing deadline, there have been changes made to the penalties arising from the late filing of accounts. Currently the penalties for late filing of private company accounts at Companies House are as follows:-
Private Public
Late by: £ £
Not more than 3 months 100.00 500.00
3 to 6 months 250.00 1,000.00
6 to 12 months 500.00 2,000.00
More than 12 months 1,000.00 5,000.00
The new regime has a much shorter timeframe and increased penalties. It will apply to all accounts delivered late on or after 1st February 2009. The revised timeframe and penalties from 1st February 2009 will be as follows:-
Private Public
Late by: £ £
Not more than 1 month 150.00 750.00
1 to 3 months 375.00 1,500.00
3 to 6 months 750.00 3,000.00
More than 6 months 1,500.00 7,500.00
A “doubling” penalty has been introduced for accounts which are delivered late for a second successive year under the new regulations. For companies the double penalty regime will apply for two successive late filings of accounts beginning on or after 6th April 2008.
An illustration of the doubling penalty would be:-
• Year 1 – the company files its accounts 2 weeks late – the penalty is £150 irrespective of any previous late filing under the old rules.
• Year 2 – the company files its accounts 6 weeks late – the penalty is £750 (being £375 for filing more than 1 month late x 2 because it is the second successive year of late filing).
• Year 3 – the company files its accounts 2 weeks late – the penalty is £300 (being £150 for filing less than 1 month late x 2 because, although it is the third successive year of late filing, there is no tripling provision).
• Year 4 – the company files its accounts on time and no penalty is incurred.
• Year 5 – the company files its accounts 2 weeks late – the penalty is £150 because the accounts were filed on time in the previous period.
As you can see the new penalty regime is considerably more severe than the old one and once again serves to underline the importance of ensuring that your records are provided to us on a timely basis to enable us to complete the work and file the accounts at Companies House within the filing deadlines.