Higher Penalties

Running your own Company can be very demanding at times. Any ‘Owner Managers’ will be well aware of the need to file accounts at Companies House by the ‘due date’ to avoid a late filing penalty. The demands put on you by Companies House could become far more costly if accounts are filed late from now on…………

With effect from 1 February 2009 higher late filing penalties will be imposed on those companies that file their accounts late.

Due Date

For any accounting periods commencing prior to, and on 5 April 2008 , accounts have to be filed at Companies House no later than 10 months after the accounting year-end.

For accounting periods that begin on or after 6 April 2008 (that is April 2009 year-ends and onwards for most), a new Companies Act ruling has reduced this period to within nine months of the year-end.

Higher penalties
The higher late filing penalties compared with those which previously applied are as follows:

Length of delay, measured from the date the accounts are due	Previous Penalty		Penalty from 1 February 2009
	Private company	Public company	Private company	Public company
Up to 1 month	£100	£500	£150	£750
1 to 3 months	£100	£500	£375	£1,500
3 to 6 months	£250	£1,000	£750	£3,000
6 to 12 months	£500	£2,000	£1,500	£7,500
Over 12 months	£1,000	£5,000	£1,500	£7,500