When do you need to file accounts?
The accounts for a Limited Company are due nine months after the company year end. So, for instance if the company year-end is the 31st of December the accounts would be due on the 30th of September the following year.
There would be slight variations in this time frame.
When you form a new company the first set of accounts are due nine months after the anniversary of opening the company. So, if you opened the company on the 1st of January 2017 the accounts are due to be filed on the 1st of October 2018.
“When you form a new company the first set of accounts are due nine months after the anniversary of opening the company.”
There would also be variations if you either extended or shortened the year end, changing the date of the year end of the accounts it would also have the effect of changing the filing date for the accounts. The filing date would be nine months after the year-end so changing this would either extend or shorten the time to submit the accounts.
You can extend the company period up to a total of 18 months and you can extend a company accounting year once in a five-year period. You can-not change a company’s accounting year end date once the accounts are overdue or if changing the accounting year end date would make the accounts overdue.
If you want to change the accounting year end date for your company you will need to do this with Companies House using form AA01, this can be done online or using the paper form.
It is always recommended to give yourself plenty of time to file the accounts before the filing deadline.
The penalties for filing accounts late are shown below.
1 month late - £150.00
3 months late - £375.00
6 months late - £750.00
More than 6 months late - £1500.00