How bad is this, honestly?
Less bad than it feels at 11pm with a brown envelope in your hand. Being late costs money, and the amounts are fixed and published in advance, like a parking charge rather than a court case.
The situation only turns serious if you never file at all. That is the line that matters: late filers pay a penalty and move on; non-filers are the ones Companies House can pursue personally and eventually remove from the register. Today, staying on the right side of that line simply means filing.
What penalties am I looking at right now?
Two organisations run two separate clocks. Companies House wants your annual accounts, normally 9 months after your financial year ends. HMRC wants your Company Tax Return, normally 12 months after your accounting period ends. The accounts deadline comes first, so "accounts overdue" usually strikes before the tax return is late, but if enough time has passed you may owe both.
The Companies House penalty for late accounts depends on how late they are when they finally arrive:
- Up to 1 month late: £150
- 1 to 3 months late: £375
- 3 to 6 months late: £750
- More than 6 months late: £1,500
Those figures are for a private limited company, and the whole penalty doubles if your accounts are late two years in a row, so the top band can reach £3,000. Our guide on Companies House late-accounts penalties walks through the exact amounts.
The HMRC penalty for a late Company Tax Return is separate: £200 on the very first day it is late, then another £200 at 3 months. Those amounts apply to returns due on or after 1 April 2026; a return that was due before that date fell under the older £100 amounts. At 6 months HMRC stops waiting, estimates your Corporation Tax bill itself, and adds 10% of the unpaid tax; at 12 months, another 10%. If HMRC has asked your company for a return, the flat penalties apply even if the company owes no tax at all.
The good news hiding in those bands: the meter moves in steps. Filing this week instead of next month can be the difference between one band and the next.
Why is filing fast better than appealing?
Because filing is the only move that stops the clocks, and appealing does not.
The Companies House penalty is only fixed when your accounts actually arrive, so every week of delay risks climbing a band. Appeals exist, but Companies House has very little room to let a penalty go: you must give a specific reason and prove the circumstances were out of your control, and "the company was dormant", "we could not afford it" and "we relied on our accountant" are all listed as reasons unlikely to succeed.
On the HMRC side it is even clearer: you cannot appeal the late-filing penalty until the return is filed. And once you are 6 months late, HMRC's estimate of your bill cannot be appealed at all; file the return and the estimate is replaced by your actual figures.
So the order is always the same: file first, today if you can. Then, if something genuinely beyond your control caused the delay, appeal afterwards with the filing already done. That is also the strongest position to appeal from.
What happens if I do nothing?
We will say this once, calmly: not filing your accounts is a criminal offence, directors can be personally fined, and Companies House can take steps to strike your company off the register. Ignoring the letters does not make the problem go away; it moves the problem from the company to you personally.
None of that happens to directors who file late and pay the penalty. Late is a money problem. Never is a legal one. You are reading this page, so you are in the first group.
What do I need to file today?
Three things, and you probably have two of them already:
- Your records for the year. Bank statements, invoices and receipts for the period the accounts cover. They do not need to be tidy to start; they need to be findable.
- Your company's UTR. That is the 10-digit tax reference on letters from HMRC, such as a notice to file or a payment reminder. Lost it? Your company can request a copy online and HMRC posts it to your registered address. Our guide on finding your company UTR shows you where to look first.
- A Government Gateway sign-in with Corporation Tax switched on. If you have never filed for the company yourself, this may need setting up; our guide on activating Corporation Tax online covers each step. And if HMRC refuses the sign-in with a code called error 1046, it is nearly always fixable; our error 1046 guide shows you how.
The theme across all three: anything HMRC has to send you arrives by post, so start those requests today. Do not wait for the post before filing, though. Send your accounts to Companies House immediately, because that stops the biggest climbing penalty, and file the HMRC return the moment any posted codes arrive.
When is ringing an accountant genuinely the right move?
Sometimes it really is, and there is no shame in it. Ring one if any of these sound like you:
- You are more than one year behind and the records for the older year are a mystery.
- The company is not small and simple: part of a group, complicated property, or anything you would struggle to explain in one sentence.
- You think the company cannot pay what it owes; that needs advice, not just a filing.
- You simply want a professional to take it all off your hands, and the peace of mind is worth the fee to you.
For a small, straightforward company with one late year and readable bank statements, you can very likely do this yourself, today.