December is a busy time of year. Christmas lights are starting to appear and with the big day less than a month away, many of us are frantically shopping and planning for the festive season.
It's also a busy time at Companies House.
Many companies choose to align their accounting period with the financial year, ending 31 March. This means their accounts filing deadline is 31 December (9 months later).
Here are a few tips to help you file your accounts on time during this busy festive period.
1. Plan early
Start planning early for filing your accounts and make sure you know your company's filing deadline dates.
If you’re a small company, you cannot file abbreviated accounts any more.
Find out your accounts filing options for small companies.
2. File online
Most companies can file their accounts electronically – it’s faster and easier. We've significantly improved our digital services, so it has never been easier to file your accounts online and on time.
You can also use software to send us your accounts data electronically.
3. Email reminders
You can sign up to receive email reminders. These can be sent to up to 4 e-mail addresses.
4. Avoid rejection
Our online service has inbuilt checks to make sure all the relevant information is provided before you can submit.
You'll also get an automatic email to confirm that we've received your accounts. We'll send you another email once they've been accepted for filing.
5. Paper accounts
If you have to file paper accounts, you could use a guaranteed next day delivery service.
Accounts filed on paper need to be manually checked. We can only check them during office opening hours, and they can take over a week to process.
You should send your accounts well before the 31 December deadline in case you need time to resubmit them. If your accounts are rejected and you need to resend them, you could be too late to avoid a penalty.
We will not accept postal delays as an excuse for late filing.
If you cannot file on time
We do accept that sometimes there'll be unplanned events which stop you filing your accounts on time. In exceptional circumstances, you can apply for more time to file your accounts.
We must receive your application before the filing deadline. You must prove that the circumstances were out of your control and made it impossible for you to meet the deadline.
If you cannot file your accounts on time, you should contact us as soon as possible. Include your company name, number and the reasons you need an extension.
Companies and directors must be aware of their responsibility to file their company accounts on time.
In 2017, there were 503 people who filed within the hour before the deadline (31 December 2017). But another 28,874 missed the cut-off point completely.
For private limited companies, missing the deadline incurs a penalty of £150. This fine continues to increase to £1,500 for accounts that are more than 6 months late. The penalty is doubled if your accounts are late 2 years in a row.
We've received some questionable late filing excuses over the last 12 months.
Unfortunately, we did have to decline these excuses because they were clearly untrue, or just not good enough reasons.
GOV.UK has more information about:
- our online filing service
- the company authentication code you’ll need to file online
- how to prepare your accounts
- filing your accounts
- late filing penalties
4 comments
Comment by Simon Male posted on
Hello,
I'm not sure what the right place to post this comment is, so am including here.
I recently submitted my accounts online via the joint CH and HMRC submission process. A day later I realised I had made a minor mistake and needed to amend my submission. This is available as an option on the Government Gateway account. I subsequently corrected the relevant entries and re-submitted to HMRC.
However there was no reference to resubmission to CH. Nor was there any guidance as to whether this was possible, or how to go about it. Eventually I had to phone CH to be told that any amendment would need to be submitted in paper form.
In an ideal world, amendments should be accepted by CH before the acceptance of accounts, and be possible online. But if the processes for this are not yet in place, at least post a warning on the amendment option on the Government Gateway for joint filing to say that you can't submit amendments to CH yet, and that a paper re-submission will be required. It would save a lot of confusion on users' part and a slew of telephone calls to yourselves at a busy time of year.
Kind regards
Simon Male
Director, Scion Ventures Limited
Co no: 08861316
Comment by Jonathan Moyle posted on
Thanks for your feedback, Simon. We're always grateful for suggestions to improve our guidance.
GOV.UK has this guidance on how to send amended accounts to Companies House: https://www.gov.uk/annual-accounts/corrections-and-amendments
I'll pass your feedback on to our technical team.
Comment by Karem Ortiz posted on
My company has been just registered the 4th Dec/2018. A letter from companies house arrived today.
It is a limited company and I am the director.
TO fill my annual accounts and corporate tax return when would be the deadline for me?
The company is Nauarchi DIgital Marketing Ltd
Please advice
Karem
Comment by Jonathan Moyle posted on
Hi Karem,
Please contact our customer support team - enquiries@companieshouse.gov.uk
Thanks.