Late Filing Penalties - Update
All companies including dormant companies are required to deliver annual accounts to Companies House. Previously private companies had 10 months to file accounts with Companies House under the Companies Act 1985 and public companies had seven months. Under the Companies Act 2006, which covers financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2008, you now only have nine months to file your accounts at Companies House and for public companies this is now six months.
A penalty is payable if the accounts are delivered late. These penalties have increased and penalties will be doubled in cases where the accounts are filed late under the Companies Act 2006 and the previous year's accounts under the 2006 Act were also late.
The new penalties are as follows:
How late are the accounts delivered Penalty Penalty
Private Company PLC
Not more than one month £150 £750
More than one month but not more than three months £375 £1,500
More than three months but not more than six months £750 £3,000
More than six months £1,500 £7,500
Late Filing Penalties – Timetable
The new penalties came into effect on 1 February 2009 and if accounts were already overdue before 1 February 2009 the new penalties will apply.
The shortening of the filing deadline to nine months makes it more important that books and records are made available to your accountant to ensure that accounts are ready for filing in good time before the due date.
Please contact any of the David Allen & Co Limited Company team for further advice in any of these areas.