Companies House late filing penalties: the bands

The four private-company bands

Companies House sets the penalty by how many months late the accounts are, counted from the statutory filing deadline (not from the date a reminder was sent, since Companies House does not send reminders before the deadline passes). The scale has four bands, and there is no partial or pro-rated amount within a band — one day into the "1 to 3 months" band carries the same £375 charge as ten weeks into it.

A public limited company sits on a separate, higher scale — for the same four lateness bands, the amounts are roughly five times the private-company figures. The bands and the general mechanism are identical; only the amount charged differs by company type.

• Up to 1 month late: £150 (private company)
• 1 to 3 months late: £375 (private company)
• 3 to 6 months late: £750 (private company)
• More than 6 months late: £1,500 (private company)

The penalty applies even when the company is dormant or not trading

The obligation to file accounts by the statutory deadline is a Companies Act filing duty, separate from whether the company traded, generated revenue, or is dormant for tax purposes. Companies House's own guidance on appeals states plainly that a company being dormant is not, on its own, a ground on which an appeal is likely to succeed — the filing duty and the penalty for missing it apply to a dormant company in exactly the same way as to a trading one.

The same is true of company size: a small or micro-entity company filing abbreviated or filleted accounts under the small companies regime is still bound by the same deadline and the same four-band penalty scale as any other private company. Simplified accounts reduce what has to be prepared; they do not extend when it is due.

Appeals: narrow grounds, no automatic exceptions

A penalty is issued automatically as soon as accounts are received late, with no case-by-case judgement applied at that point — the review happens only if the company appeals afterward. Companies House's published guidance lists reasons that are unlikely to succeed on appeal: dormancy, the company or its director being unaware of the filing requirement, an accountant or agent's failure to file on the client's behalf, financial hardship, being a first-time filer, or postal delay for a submission not sent with enough time to allow for it.

Grounds treated more favourably tend to involve something genuinely outside the company's control and close to the deadline — a documented failure of the Companies House filing service itself, or a sudden and serious event (such as the sole director's serious illness or death, evidenced accordingly) that directly prevented filing. An appeal is made in writing with supporting evidence, and Companies House's decision can itself be escalated internally before any further route is considered.