Overdue Company Accounts Filing in Montgomery

Company accounts become overdue when the applicable Companies House filing deadline has passed and the required statutory accounts have not been delivered. The deadline is determined by the company's accounting reference period and its individual circumstances, so it is not identical for every company. If you are unsure whether your accounts are overdue, the Companies House record for the company will show which accounts have been filed and for which periods, and that is usually the quickest place to start.

Yes. Where accounts have not been delivered by the applicable deadline, the requirement to prepare and file them remains until they have been submitted. Being dormant, not trading, or having no income for the period does not remove that obligation, and in most cases the company will still need to file accounts for each relevant accounting period. The appropriate form of accounts depends on the company's structure, accounting period, size and reporting framework, so the position should be assessed before anything is prepared.

Yes, it can. Dormancy and overdue filing are separate matters: a dormant company may still have annual accounts filing obligations, and if the applicable deadline passed without those accounts being delivered, they are overdue in exactly the same way as accounts for a trading company. Dormant status does not exempt a company from filing, although the accounts themselves may be prepared on a simpler basis depending on the circumstances and the relevant requirements.

Where accounts are delivered after the applicable deadline, Companies House can impose a late-filing penalty. The penalty that may apply depends on the circumstances, including how late the accounts are, and it is not the same in every case. Filing the outstanding accounts and dealing with any penalty are separate matters, and paying a penalty does not remove the requirement to file the accounts. If you believe a penalty has been issued incorrectly, eligibility for an appeal depends on the circumstances and the applicable Companies House rules, and we can review your position with you.

Where more than one accounting period is outstanding, each period generally needs to be addressed separately, which usually means preparing a separate set of accounts for each one. The order in which periods are prepared and filed can matter, and the work involved depends on the records available for each period. Filing one set of accounts does not automatically resolve the others, so it helps to map out exactly what is outstanding before starting. We can review the company's filing history and set out a practical order of work for your circumstances.

Yes. Statutory accounts are filed with Companies House where required, while a CT600 Corporation Tax Return is submitted to HMRC where applicable — these are distinct obligations with different deadlines and different recipients. A confirmation statement is also separate from annual accounts and is submitted to Companies House to keep the company's information up to date. Submitting overdue accounts to Companies House does not automatically satisfy any outstanding Corporation Tax or confirmation statement obligations, so where a company has several things outstanding it is worth reviewing them all together.

Some companies with overdue accounts may qualify for the micro-entity reporting framework, and where a company qualifies, its accounts can be prepared on that basis — including for outstanding periods. Not every small company qualifies, however, and eligibility depends on factors such as the company's size, legal structure and accounting period. FRS 105 is the financial reporting standard that applies to qualifying entities using the micro-entity framework, and the appropriate framework should be confirmed before the accounts are prepared rather than assumed.

We can review the company's Companies House record, confirm which accounting periods remain outstanding, and help prepare the statutory accounts on the framework that applies to your company. Our accountants are qualified and regulated by ICAEW, ACCA and AAT, and we will tell you plainly which records we need — such as bookkeeping records, bank statements, invoices, expense records, previous accounts and company details — depending on the period being prepared. We will ask you to review and approve the accounts before anything is submitted, and we can also flag any separate matters, such as confirmation statements or Corporation Tax Returns, that may need attention. To get started, contact us with a short summary of your company's position.