Late filing penalties at Companies House
Filing your company accounts late carries an automatic penalty: £150 up to 1 month, £375 1 to 3 months, £750 3 to 6 months, £1,500 more than 6 months. It is doubled if the accounts are late two years in a row. The penalty is separate from anything HMRC charges for a late CT600, and appeals succeed only in genuinely exceptional circumstances.
Automatic, escalating, and much harder to appeal than an HMRC penalty. The useful knowledge here is almost entirely about the dates, because once the deadline passes there is very little to argue about.
The scale
| How late | Private company |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 month | £150 |
| 1 to 3 months | £375 |
| 3 to 6 months | £750 |
| More than 6 months | £1,500 |
And the doubling matters more than the first year's figure. Late two years running turns £1,500into £3,000 — which is why the year after a late filing is the one to get right, and the year most likely to slip for exactly the same reasons as the first.
Why appeals rarely work
Companies House starts from the position that directors are responsible for filing on time and that the deadline was known from the moment the company was formed. It does not require a reminder to have been sent.
Arguments that generally fail:
- The accountant was slow, or did not have the records in time
- Nobody received a reminder
- The company was dormant and there was nothing to report
- The post was slow, or the online service was hard to use
- The director was abroad, or busy
What can succeed is something genuinely exceptional and outside your control, evidenced. The bar is meaningfully higher than HMRC's reasonable excuse test — see appealing an HMRC penalty for the comparison.
Two penalty regimes, not one
Late accounts and a late tax return are separate failures with separate penalties:
| Companies House | HMRC | |
|---|---|---|
| What is late | The accounts | The CT600 |
| Deadline | 9 months after the end of the accounting period | 12 months after the period end |
| First penalty | £150 | £200 |
| Worst case | £1,500, doubled on repeat | 10% of unpaid tax at six months, again at twelve |
Late three times in a row and the £200 penalties become £1,000 each.
Already late, or about to be?
Get the accounts filed — the penalty stops escalating the moment they land, and the difference between three months late and six is a real amount of money. We will also tell you honestly whether an appeal is worth attempting.
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Free assessment first. If there is work to do, you get a fixed quote in writing before anything starts.
If you are late right now
- File as soon as possible. Each band you cross costs more than the last, and the jump from three months to six is the largest.
- Pay the penalty or arrange to. Unpaid penalties are pursued like any other debt.
- Check what else is outstanding — the CT600, the confirmation statement, the corporation tax itself. They rarely slip alone.
- Fix the cause. Almost every late filing we see comes from records that were not ready, not from a director who chose to ignore the date.
Questions people ask
How much is the penalty?
For a private company: £150 up to 1 month, £375 up to 1 to 3 months, £750 up to 3 to 6 months, £1,500 up to more than 6 months — and it is doubled if the accounts are late two years in a row.
Can I appeal it?
Rarely successfully. Companies House applies the penalty automatically and treats the directors as responsible for filing on time. Appeals succeed only in genuinely exceptional circumstances — an unexpected event outside your control that made filing impossible, not that it was overlooked or that your accountant was slow.
Is this the same as the HMRC penalty?
No, and a company that is late everywhere pays both. Companies House penalises late accounts; HMRC penalises a late CT600 on its own scale — £200 at one day, rising to 10% of the unpaid tax at six months.
What if the company is dormant?
Dormant companies still file accounts, and the penalties apply exactly the same. Being dormant reduces the paperwork, not the obligation — and dormant companies are where the deadline is most often forgotten.
What happens if I just do not file?
The registrar can strike the company off, and its assets — including the bank balance — pass to the Crown. Directors can also be prosecuted for the failure, which is a personal matter rather than a company one.
Can I get more time?
An extension can be applied for before the deadline, where there is a genuine reason such as an unforeseen event. After the deadline has passed there is nothing to extend, which is why an early call is worth far more than a good explanation later.
Figures are for the tax year shown and change every April. They are general information, not advice — we check the current position for your circumstances before anything is filed.
Reviewed 19 October 2026.
Part of our work on company filings and deadlines — if you want someone to take it off your hands, start with our confirmation statement filing page.