Every company registered with Companies House is required to file annual accounts, which are documents prepared at the end of a financial year. These accounts reflect the company’s performance throughout the accounting period. Each company has an accounting reference date, the deadline for filing (submitting) the accounts is calculated from this date.
For existing companies, the accounting reference date falls on the anniversary of the day after the previous financial year ended. The time normally allowed for delivering accounts to Companies House is nine months from the accounting reference date.
For newly formed companies, the date of submission corresponds to the anniversary of the last day in the month the company was incorporated. For companies filing their first set of accounts, they are allowed 21 months after the registered date with Companies House.