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Overdue accounts consequences

Confirm the real Companies House filing deadline, establish whether acceptable accounts are overdue, check the statutory penalty and resolve the filing problem. A practical workflow for accountants—not an enforcement prediction.

What overdue accounts means

Accounts are overdue when the applicable filing deadline has passed without acceptable accounts being delivered to Companies House. Preparing accounts, sending a submission or paying a penalty is not, by itself, completion of the filing obligation.

Start with the company's actual registered facts and filing evidence. A standard deadline calculation is a check, not a substitute for investigating a changed period, an approved extension, an exemption or an unresolved filing status.

First, confirm the actual deadline

Check the company's Companies House overview and filing history, including the accounting reference date, incorporation date, first or later accounts, and any accepted accounting-period change. Reconcile the record with notice receipt and extension evidence where relevant.

Use the reviewed Accounts Filing Deadline Calculator for supported private-company, public-company or LLP facts, then read its explanation and limits. First accounts and shortened periods can require more facts than an accounting reference date alone; missing notice receipt can require review rather than an invented deadline.

Use the Accounts Filing Deadlines guide for the rules and reviewed examples. Filing deadlines do not move simply because they fall on a weekend or bank holiday. Keep Companies House accounts deadlines separate from HMRC tax-payment and CT600 return deadlines.

Rule summary

Late-filing penalties: a civil consequence, not a filing solution

Standard Companies House bands below are measured from the actual filing deadline to delivery of acceptable accounts. The private-company and LLP calculator does not support public-company amounts. Check repeat lateness separately; no penalty payment removes the obligation to file.

How late acceptable accounts arrivePrivate company / LLPPublic company
Not more than 1 month£150£750
More than 1 month, not more than 3 months£375£1,500
More than 3 months, not more than 6 months£750£3,000
More than 6 months£1,500£7,500

Determine the late-filing penalty position

The table above summarises the standard civil penalty bands. Use calendar months, not arbitrary 30-day bands. Penalties double where accounts are filed late in two successive financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2008; that is not the same as any two historic late filings.

The Companies House Late Filing Penalty Calculator supports the standard private-company and LLP bands. Enter the established accounts due date and effective filing date, and confirm the previous financial year's lateness. It does not determine your original deadline, decide an appeal or predict enforcement.

Public-company penalties differ: use the official guidance instead of applying the private-company calculator. Check company classification and any specialist circumstances before relying on the standard figures. Companies House issues the actual penalty notice when late accounts are delivered; compare its dates and amount with your records.

If the accounts were submitted but rejected

Companies House cannot accept accounts that do not meet the Companies Act requirements. Its guidance gives an unsigned balance sheet as an example of accounts returned for amendment. If corrected acceptable accounts arrive after the deadline, a late-filing penalty follows.

Do not close the practice task on the strength of a send receipt alone. Check the acceptance or rejection message, fix the stated issue, resubmit promptly and confirm the effective filing date and updated record. Preserve receipts and correspondence if you believe Companies House made an error.

Other Companies House consequences

Failure to file accounts is a criminal offence. Directors, or LLP designated members, may face prosecution and personal fines. This is separate from the company's civil late-filing penalty; paying that penalty does not file the missing accounts.

Companies House may seek a court order to compel filing. It may ultimately take strike-off action, including where the registrar believes a company is no longer operating. Prosecution and strike-off are possible enforcement outcomes, not guaranteed consequences after a particular number of days late.

Read and respond to actual notices. The enforcement policy calls for case-specific, proportionate decisions. If strike-off action has started, or the company is insolvent or dissolved, the ordinary deadline-and-penalty workflow is not enough: obtain specialist advice. Ignoring a penalty debt can also lead to debt recovery and court proceedings.

Extensions, appeals and dormant companies

An unforeseen event outside the company's control may justify an application for more time, but the application must be made before the filing deadline. An application is not approval. Check the actual approval, conditions and resulting due date; the standard calculator must not assume an extension. A later accounting reference date change can invalidate an existing extension, so reconcile both records.

A penalty appeal is separate from resolving the overdue filing. Use the official appeal route and supporting evidence; unexpected circumstances near the deadline or a Companies House error may be relevant. Success is not guaranteed, and dormancy or reliance on an accountant alone is unlikely to succeed. An appeal is not a filing extension and should not delay completing the accounts.

Dormancy does not automatically remove annual accounts or confirmation statement obligations. Confirm the appropriate dormant accounts route; specialist dormant-subsidiary exemptions need their own checks rather than assuming that no filing is due.

Worked examples

How the rule behaves in practice

  • Straightforward late filing: Official Companies House example: a private company's period ends on 30 September 2019; acceptable accounts are due by 30 June 2020 and arrive on 15 July 2020. They are not more than one month late, giving a £150 standard penalty. If the previous financial year's accounts were also late, the doubled amount would be £300.
  • First accounts: establish the correct deadline: Reviewed official example: a private company incorporated on 1 January 2025 has its first accounting reference date on 31 January 2026, with no period change or extension. The deadline is 1 October 2026, not 31 October 2026. Check this first-accounts rule before deciding whether a proposed filing date is overdue; the normal subsequent-accounts rule is not enough.
  • Sent before the deadline, but rejected: Illustration: the verified deadline is 30 June 2026. An unsigned balance sheet is sent on 29 June and returned for amendment. Correct acceptable accounts arrive on 2 July 2026. The filing is late despite the earlier submission. In the standard private-company case with no previous-year lateness or extension, the penalty band is £150. Retain the rejection and acceptance evidence.
  • An approved extension needs its own evidence: Illustration: the normal deadline is 30 June 2026. An application made before that date is approved by Companies House, expressly setting 31 July 2026 as the extended deadline. Acceptable accounts arrive on 15 July 2026 and no later period change invalidates the extension. Against that verified extended deadline, the accounts are on time. An unapproved application would not establish this result. Check the approval and company record; a standard deadline calculator cannot infer the extension.

Practical consequences

  • The civil late-filing penalty is imposed on the company. The directors' responsibility to deliver accounts and any criminal proceedings for non-filing are separate matters; appointing an accountant does not transfer that responsibility.
  • Continued non-filing leaves the filing obligation unresolved. Check Companies House correspondence and company status, rather than treating the maximum civil penalty as permission to leave accounts outstanding.
  • Missing records, client delays and filing-access problems are practice workflow blockers, not statutory categories. Assign an owner and a concrete next action for each blocker.

Important limits

  • This is an accounts recovery workflow, not a company-specific enforcement forecast. Verify the company's official record, accepted filings and correspondence.
  • Standard penalty amounts do not determine appeals, approved extensions, exemptions, insolvency, dissolution or disputed filing dates. Escalate these cases for review rather than assuming a result.
  • The trusted Accounts and penalty tools have different roles and supported scopes. Neither files accounts, grants an extension or represents a Companies House penalty notice.

Primary sources and review date

Reviewed on . Source review recorded in the accepted overdue-accounts guide repair (28 September 2026).

Applies to: Current Companies House accounts delivery, penalties and proportionate enforcement guidance.

Reviewed scope: Accounts recovery workflow using official records; private/public penalty summary is not a company-specific enforcement forecast.

Review basis and change triggers

Reviewed model: overdue-accounts-guide-content: reviewed recovery workflow 28 September 2026

  • A cited source or statutory regime changes.
  • Reviewed content, runtime adapter or domain implementation changes.
  • A new effective period falls outside the supported scope.

What to do now: six-step recovery

  1. Confirm the company number, period, applicable deadline and current Companies House record; retain any notice, extension approval and submission evidence.
  2. Establish whether acceptable accounts have actually been delivered. Resolve rejection reasons and record the effective filing date, not just the date something was sent.
  3. For a private company or LLP, check the standard penalty band using the verified due date, effective filing date and whether the previous financial year's accounts were also late. If still unfiled, a proposed filing date is only a planning estimate: it is not a penalty notice or confirmation of filing.
  4. Obtain outstanding client records, prepare and approve the right accounts, resolve authentication or validation issues and file using an appropriate Companies House channel. Obnexo does not file the accounts for you.
  5. Confirm acceptance and the updated filing record, handle any penalty notice or enforcement correspondence separately, and retain the evidence. For disputes, insolvency, strike-off notices or specialist exemptions, seek company-specific advice.
  6. Once the immediate problem is resolved, record the next cycle and responsible owner. Repeated checks across a practice portfolio are where maintaining company compliance work in Google Sheets becomes more useful than repeatedly opening individual calculators.