Late Filing Penalties

There a number of filing deadlines throughout the year that you need to meet, these are for Companies House and HMRC. Failure to abide by these deadlines can result in penalties.

Companies House Late Filing

Late Company Accounts may result in a fine and the company being struck off the registers

Time after the deadline	Penalty (for private limited companies)
Up to 1 month	£150
1 to 3 months	£375
3 to 6 months	£750
More than 6 months	£1,500Penalties for public limited companies are different.

The penalty is doubled if your accounts are late 2 years in a row.

Appeal against a late filing penalty

If you want to appeal a penalty you must give a reason why you couldn’t file your accounts on time.

You must prove the circumstances were both out of your control and made it impossible for you to meet the deadline, for example a fire destroyed your records a few days before your accounts were due.

You can’t appeal by claiming:

your company is dormant
you can’t afford to pay
it was your accountant’s (or anybody else’s) fault
you didn’t know when or how to file your accounts
your accounts were delayed or lost in the post
the directors live or were travelling overseas

Confirmation Statement

This used to be called the annual return, you need to provide Companies House with confirmation that the details held by them are correct. You can amend some details that are incorrect. You can be fined up to £5,000 and your company may be struck off if you don’t send your confirmation statement.

HMRC

Company Tax Return

Time after your deadline	Penalty
1 day	£100
3 months	Another £100
6 months	HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will estimate your Corporation Tax bill and add a penalty of 10% the unpaid tax
12 months	Another 10% of any unpaid tax

If your tax return is late 3 times in a row, the £100 penalties are increased to £500 each.

If your tax return is more than 6 months late

If your tax return is 6 months late, HMRC will write telling you how much Corporation Tax they think you must pay. This is called a ‘tax determination’. You can’t appeal against it.

You must pay the Corporation Tax due and file your tax return. HMRC will recalculate the interest and penalties you need to pay.

Reasonable Excuses!!
You may be able to appeal if you have a reasonable excuse, this is something that stopped you meeting a tax obligation that you took reasonable care to meet, for example:

your partner or another close relative died shortly before the tax return or payment deadline
you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your tax affairs
you had a serious or life-threatening illness
your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online return
service issues with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online services
a fire, flood or theft prevented you from completing your tax return
postal delays that you couldn’t have predicted
delays related to a disability you have

You must send your return or payment as soon as possible after your reasonable excuse is resolved.

What won’t count as a reasonable excuse

The following won’t be accepted as a reasonable excuse:

you relied on someone else to send your return and they didn’t
your cheque bounced or payment failed because you didn’t have enough money
you found the HMRC online system too difficult to use
you didn’t get a reminder from HMRC
you made a mistake on your tax return

Back to Guides

Companies House Late Filing

Appeal against a late filing penalty

Confirmation Statement

HMRC

Company Tax Return

Company Details

Customer Services

Hours of Business