New Companies House Late Filing Penalties

Newsletter issue - February 09.

It's more important than ever to get your books and records into us on time because from 1st February 2009 private companies that fail to file their accounts on time will face increased fines. The maximum fine will be imposed after 6 months rather than the current 12 months. The fines will also start to increase after a delay of just one month instead of three months. The new penalties for private companies are as follows...

Less than 1 month late:	£150
More than 1 month but less than 3 months:	£375
More than 3 months but less than 6 months	£750
More than 6 months	£1,500

The permitted time limit for filing accounts also comes down from 10 months after the year end to 9 months for accounting years starting on or after 6 April 2008. In addition where there was a failure to comply with filing requirements in relation to the previous financial year (and the previous financial year had begun on or after 6th April 2008), the penalty will be double that shown above.

Companies House can expect its late filing penalty income from private companies to soar to £100 million in 2010, up from the 2007 figure of £47.4 million.