Company Formation Specialists

How Long Do I Have To File My Company's First Accounts?

If you are filing your company's first accounts and they cover a period of more than 12 months, they must be delivered to the Registrar within 22 months of the date of incorporation for private companies and 19 months for public companies or 3 months from the ARD, whichever is longer. The definition of a period of months in connection with filing the accounts also applies to the first accounts. For example, a private company incorporated on 1 January with an Accounting Reference Date (ARD) of 31 January has until midnight on 1 November (22 months from the date of incorporation) to deliver its accounts, not 30 November.

Unless you are filing your company's first accounts the time normally allowed for delivering accounts to Companies House is:

• for a private company, 10 months from the ARD;
• for a public company, 7 months from the ARD.

However, if the accounting reference period has been shortened, the time allowed for filing the accounts is the longer of:

• for a private company 10 months (or for a public company 7 months) from the ARD; or
• 3 months from the date of the notice (Form 225).

Please be aware of the definition of a period of months in connection with filing accounts.

A period of months after a given date ends on the corresponding date in the appropriate month. For example a private company with an ARD of 30 September has until midnight on 30 July of the following year to deliver its accounts, not 31 July.

If there is no corresponding date, the last day of the month will apply. For example, a private company with an ARD of 30 April has until midnight on 28 February the following year to deliver its accounts. Top Of Page

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