Guidance

Late filing penalties from Companies House

How a late filing penalty will be imposed if your company or LLP's accounts are not filed on time, and how to appeal against a penalty.

• From: Companies House
• Published: 1 April 2014
• Last updated: 16 January 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 16 January 2026

     Added a list of the debt collection agencies that work on our behalf.

  2. 24 October 2024

     'Consequences of not filing' section updated - you could get a financial penalty if you do not file your confirmation statement on time.

  3. 24 July 2023

     Guidance reviewed and appeal manual unpublished.

  4. 8 December 2021

     Edited guidance on appeals as it's taking longer than usual to respond. Added reassurance that we'll suspend all recovery action until an appeal has been considered, so there's no need to contact us. A full reply will be sent in due course.

  5. 16 February 2021

     LFP guidance for LLPs consolidated into the company LFP guidance.

  6. 6 November 2020

     Added the online service to appeal a late filing penalty.

  7. 1 September 2020

     Updated BACS details with new Companies House bank account.

  8. 31 March 2020

     Paying your LFP by BACS only.

  9. 19 August 2019

     Welsh translation added.

  10. 2 July 2019

      Appeals manual version 10 published.

  11. 10 May 2019

      Updated Welsh language LFP manual published.

  12. 7 May 2019

      Welsh version of appeals form published.

  13. 17 April 2019

      'Appeal a late filing penalty' PDF uploaded.

  14. 26 February 2019

      LFP manual version 9 published.

  15. 2 October 2018

      LFP manual v8.1 published.

  16. 6 February 2018

      Guidance converted to HTML

  17. 21 August 2017

      Link to accessibility information added.

  18. 4 August 2017

      Guidance for companies affected by flooding removed.

  19. 6 March 2017

      LFP podcast added

  20. 30 June 2016

      New version relating to changes brought in by the The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act.

  21. 29 December 2015

      'Support for companies affected by flooding' guidance added to our late filing penalty guidance.

  22. 20 August 2015

      Welsh appeal manual added

  23. 22 April 2015

      Guidance updated to version 2.9

  24. 29 December 2014

      New page added: How to pay your penalty (Sut i dalu’ch cosb)

  25. 29 December 2014

      A how to pay your penalty page has been added to the GP5 pdf

  26. 18 December 2014

      Removed appeals manual

  27. 4 December 2014

      Welsh translation added

  28. 1 April 2014

      First published.

Documents

Late filing penalties

HTML

Appeal a late filing penalty

https://www.gov.uk/appeal-a-penalty-for-filing-your-company-accounts-late

Details

This guidance applies to all UK registered private companies, public companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

It explains how a penalty will be imposed against a company or LLP if accounts are not filed by the deadline.

Find out how to:

• pay your penalty (we cannot take credit card payments over the telephone)
• appeal a penalty

Our team is very busy so it might take longer than usual to reply to appeals. We’ll suspend all recovery action until your appeal has been considered and you’ll receive a full reply in due course - you do not need to contact us.