What Are Company Filings at Companies House? A Plain-English Guide for UK Businesses

Company filings at Companies House are the documents every UK limited company is legally required to submit to keep the public register accurate. The core filings are your confirmation statement, your annual accounts, and event-driven updates (such as changes to directors, registered office, shares or people with significant control). Since November 2025, directors and PSCs must also verify their identity — and from 1 April 2027, annual accounts can only be filed using commercial software. Filing late or incorrectly can lead to penalties, director liability and, ultimately, the company being struck off.

Key takeaways

• Companies House is the UK registrar of companies; almost everything you file there is public.
• The three pillars are: the confirmation statement, annual accounts, and change notifications.
• From 1 February 2026, key fees rose — digital incorporation is £100 and the digital confirmation statement is £50.
• Identity verification became mandatory on 18 November 2025 — new directors verify before appointment; existing directors within 14 days of their company’s next confirmation statement.
• From 1 April 2027, accounts must be filed through commercial software — WebFiling and paper accounts routes close, and small companies will file their profit and loss account for the first time.
• Late accounts trigger automatic penalties from £150 up to £1,500 for private companies — doubled for public companies and for two late years in a row.

Who has to file at Companies House?

Every company incorporated in the UK — including dormant and non-trading companies — must file. Sole traders do not (they deal with HMRC instead), but limited companies and LLPs do. The legal responsibility sits with the directors (or members of an LLP), even if an accountant submits the documents on their behalf. This is a point worth underlining: outsourcing the filing does not outsource the responsibility. If filings are late or wrong, it is the directors who face the consequences, not the accountant.

Companies House is the official registrar for the UK. It maintains a public record of every company so that anyone — a customer, supplier, bank, investor or competitor — can look up who runs a business, where it is based, who owns it and how it is performing. That transparency is the whole point of the system, and it is why keeping your record accurate matters commercially as well as legally.

Companies House and HMRC are not the same thing

A surprisingly common — and expensive — misunderstanding: Companies House and HMRC are separate bodies with separate filings and separate deadlines. Filing your accounts at Companies House does not file your Company Tax Return, and paying your corporation tax does not satisfy Companies House.

Most companies prepare one set of accounts and use it for both, but the deadlines and penalty regimes are different — diarise them separately.

The main company filings explained

1. The confirmation statement (CS01)

At least once a year, you confirm that the information Companies House holds about your company is correct: registered office, directors, shareholders, share capital, SIC codes (which describe what your business does) and people with significant control (PSCs). It is not the same as your accounts — it is a check-and-confirm snapshot. Even a dormant company must file one. If nothing has changed since last year, you simply confirm the existing information; if something has, you update it as part of the statement.

The mechanics matter: your review period runs for 12 months, and once it ends you have just 14 days to file. The statement also now carries two newer requirements introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act: every company must maintain a registered email address with Companies House (used for official contact and not shown publicly), and you must confirm that the company’s intended future activities are lawful — the “lawful purpose” statement.

2. Annual accounts

Every company must prepare and file accounts each year. The format depends on size: micro-entities and small companies currently file simplified accounts, while larger companies file fuller, sometimes audited, accounts. The filing deadline for a private company is normally nine months after the end of its financial year (21 months after incorporation for a first set). Accounts show the company’s financial position and are among the most scrutinised documents on the register — lenders and trade partners read them closely. Note that the filing options for small companies narrow significantly from April 2027 (covered below).

3. Event-driven filings

These happen whenever something changes, and usually have short deadlines:

• Appointing or removing a director or secretary
• Changing the registered office or business activities
• Issuing, transferring or restructuring shares
• Updating people with significant control
• Changing the company name
• Filing a mortgage or charge against company assets

Most of these must be filed within days or weeks of the change, not at year-end, so it is important to deal with them as they happen rather than letting them accumulate.

Is the confirmation statement the same as the annual return?

Yes — in effect. The annual return (form AR01) was abolished on 30 June 2016 and replaced by the confirmation statement (CS01). If you ran a company before 2016, the confirmation statement is its successor: shorter, cheaper to prepare, and built around confirming existing data rather than re-keying it every year. Some accountants and older guides still say “annual return”, which causes real confusion — if a letter, adviser or template refers to the annual return, read it as the confirmation statement. The legal obligation is the same: at least one filing every 12 months, even for dormant companies.

How do you actually file?

• Companies House online services — WebFiling and the Find and Update Company Information service handle the confirmation statement, director and address changes and (until April 2027) most accounts. You will need your company authentication code.
• Commercial software — accounting and filing software submits accounts directly to Companies House; from 1 April 2027 this becomes the only route for accounts.
• An agent — accountants and formation agents can file for you. Under the new regime, third parties who form companies or file on clients’ behalf must register with Companies House as Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs) — businesses supervised for anti-money-laundering purposes and approved to carry out identity checks.
• Paper — still possible for many filings, but slower and more expensive (a paper confirmation statement costs £110 against £50 digital), and the paper route for accounts disappears in April 2027.

How to check what any company has filed (free)

Every filing discussed in this guide is public. To see them, use the official Find and Update Company Information service: search the company name or number, open the company’s page, and select the “Filing history” tab. You can read every set of accounts, every confirmation statement and every change the company has ever filed — free, with no account needed. Two practical uses: check your own company’s record for errors (you may be surprised), and check any customer, supplier or partner before signing a contract. The “Overview” tab also shows the next accounts and confirmation statement due dates — the same dates Companies House will hold you to.

2026 Companies House fees

Fees increased from 1 February 2026 to fund Companies House’s expanded powers under new economic-crime legislation. The most common are:

Most event-driven changes (director changes, registered office, PSC updates) carry no filing fee but still have legal deadlines. The increases were significant — the digital incorporation fee doubled — so it is worth budgeting for them, particularly if you incorporate companies regularly.

Identity verification: now mandatory

The most important recent development is mandatory identity verification, introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and in force since 18 November 2025. The people behind UK companies must now prove who they are to Companies House:

• New directors and PSCs must verify their identity before a company is incorporated or before their appointment takes effect.
• Existing directors must verify within 14 days of their company’s next confirmation statement date — so for most companies the deadline falls before autumn 2026.
• Existing PSCs who are also directors verify on the same timetable; PSCs who are not directors must verify within 14 days of the first day of their birth month.

Verification is free if done directly through GOV.UK One Login, or it can be completed through an ACSP such as your accountant. It is a one-off exercise: once verified, you receive a personal code that you reuse for every current and future appointment.

The consequences of ignoring it are real. An unverified director cannot validly act, the company can be blocked from making further filings, and non-compliance is an offence that can lead to fines and public annotation of the register. For legitimate businesses it is a 10–15 minute job — do it well before your confirmation statement is due, not after.

From 1 April 2027: accounts go software-only

The next big shift is already scheduled. For accounts filed on or after 1 April 2027, every company — including dormant companies — must file using commercial software. Companies House WebFiling and paper routes for accounts close on that date (other filings, such as the confirmation statement, keep their web routes).

At the same time, the filing options for smaller companies narrow:

• Small companies will no longer be able to file abridged or “filleted” accounts — they will file a balance sheet, a directors’ report and, for the first time, a profit and loss account.
• Micro-entities will file a balance sheet and a profit and loss account.

The practical consequence is transparency: turnover and profit figures that small companies have historically kept off the public record will become visible to competitors, suppliers and customers. If that matters to your business, the structuring conversation is worth having early. And if you currently file your own accounts through WebFiling, choose suitable software well before April 2027 rather than discovering the change at your deadline.

The compliance timeline: what changed and what is coming

Taken together, this is the biggest overhaul of Companies House since the registrar was created in 1844: the register is changing from a passive filing cabinet into an actively policed database, with the powers to query, reject and remove information. Build these dates into your compliance calendar now — each one is a hard deadline, not guidance.

What happens if you file late or get it wrong?

Late accounts attract automatic civil penalties on a sliding scale — and the penalty doubles if you file late two years running:

Appeals rarely succeed. Companies House only waives a penalty in genuinely exceptional circumstances — the standard example is a fire destroying records days before the deadline. Pressure of work, reliance on an accountant or postal delays do not qualify, so prevention is everything.

Beyond the automatic penalties, failing to file accounts or a confirmation statement is a criminal offence. Directors can be prosecuted and fined personally, and persistent non-compliance can lead to director disqualification.

A missed confirmation statement can also lead Companies House to assume the business is no longer operating and begin striking the company off the register. A struck-off company ceases to exist as a legal entity, its bank accounts can be frozen, and its assets pass to the Crown — a serious and sometimes irreversible outcome for an otherwise healthy business.

Worked example: how a £150 problem becomes a £3,000 one

Consider a private company with a 31 December year-end. Its 2026 accounts are due by 30 September 2027. The director is busy, the accountant is waiting on records, and the accounts go in mid-November 2027 — six weeks late. Penalty: £375, automatic, no discretion.

The following year the same thing happens, but worse: the 2027 accounts slip more than six months. That band is £1,500 — and because it is the second consecutive late year, it doubles to £3,000. Along the way, the overdue marker sat publicly on the company’s filing history, where its bank and two prospective clients saw it during checks. The total cost of two missed diary entries: £3,375 in penalties plus harder questions on a credit application. This is why the filing calendar above matters more than any other section of this guide.

Why filings matter commercially

Your Companies House record is the first thing banks, investors, suppliers and prospective buyers check. Late accounts, a string of director resignations or an overdue confirmation statement are red flags during due diligence — they suggest a business that is either struggling or poorly run. When you come to raise finance, win a large contract, or sell the company, a clean filing history removes friction and builds confidence.

Conversely, the cost of a messy record is real. Buyers reduce their offers, lenders ask more questions, and large customers may decline to onboard a supplier whose statutory position looks neglected. Clean, timely filings are a quiet but genuine signal of a well-run business — and they protect directors from personal exposure.

Your filing calendar: key deadlines at a glance

One reason businesses fall foul of Companies House is simply losing track of dates. Filings are tied to different reference points — your incorporation date, your accounting reference date, and the date each change happens — so it helps to map them out.

A simple but effective discipline is to record these dates in a shared calendar with reminders set several weeks ahead, so there is time to prepare rather than scrambling at the deadline. Many directors also sign up for Companies House email reminders, which are free. Treating the filing calendar as a fixed part of the business’s routine — rather than an annual surprise — is the single most reliable way to avoid penalties.

Six common mistakes that cost companies money

1. Confusing the confirmation statement with the accounts. They are separate filings with separate deadlines — filing one does not satisfy the other.
2. Assuming a dormant company has nothing to file. Dormant companies still file a confirmation statement and dormant accounts (form AA02) every year.
3. Treating Companies House and HMRC as one body. Two registrars, two sets of filings, two penalty regimes.
4. Letting event-driven changes accumulate. Director, address and PSC changes are due within 14 days of the event, not at year-end.
5. Using a registered-office service that sits on the post. The penalty clock runs whether or not anyone reads the letter.
6. Leaving identity verification until after the confirmation statement is due. An unverified director can hold up the company’s entire filing position — verify early.

London businesses: a quick note

London companies frequently use a registered office that differs from where they trade, and many use a service address in central London such as Mayfair or the City to present a prestigious address. That is perfectly legal, but since March 2024 the registered office must be an “appropriate address” — one where documents sent to it can come to the attention of someone acting for the company and where delivery can be acknowledged, which rules out PO Boxes. If you use a third-party registered-office service, make sure mail is forwarded and acted on quickly, because the deadline clock does not stop while a letter sits unopened — missed Companies House and HMRC correspondence is one of the most common causes of avoidable penalties.

How Hayhills can help

Hayhills supports founders and directors with the structuring and governance side of company life as part of our Business Formation and Structuring service — helping you understand your obligations, prepare for identity verification and the 2027 accounts changes, keep your statutory position clean, and avoid the commercial cost of an inaccurate register. Our approach is practical and commercially focused: we help you see what matters, why it matters, and what to prioritise.

Speak to Hayhills today →