Companies House has announced that it will now automatically extend the deadlines for certain key statutory filing events, such as the filing of company accounts. This is a temporary measure on account of the Coronavirus outbreak.

A three-month filing extension was announced from 25 March 2020 which had to be claimed in advance. This has now been modified and from 27 June 2020, late filing deadlines are automatically extended until 5 April 2021. Details of your new filing deadline will now show on the Companies House website.

In January 2021 Companies House Temporarily paused the voluntary and compulsory strike-off processes for one month from 21 January until 21 February 2021.

Accounts filing obligation	Normal deadline	COVID deadline
	(following date of the end of your accounting period)
PLC accounts	6 months	9 months
Private company & LLP accounts	9 months	12 months
Overseas companies who are required to prepare and disclose accounts under parent law	3 months	6 months
Societas Europaeas (SEs)	6 months	9 months

 

Further filing deadlines are also extended for:

• Confirmation statement: the current 14-day deadline is extended to 42 days.
• Event-driven filings (changes to your company): the current 14-day deadline is extended to 42 days.
• Mortgage charges: for charges created on or after 6 June 2020, the period to deliver the particulars of a charge will automatically increase to 31 days.

• Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) certificates and notifications which follow the statutory accounts filing deadlines: businesses receiving a three month extension for filing statutory accounts will also have an additional three months to submit their SAO filings to HMRC.

Other points

• Public companies and Societas Europaeas (SEs) whose original filing deadline fell before 30 June 2020 received an extension to their accounts filing deadline under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 and will receive no further extension under the regulations.
• The extension granted by the regulations will apply to your original filing deadline. It will not be added to the filing extension already granted by Companies House.
• Companies House state that this is a temporary measure. It will not automatically extend any filing deadlines that fall on 6 April 2021 or later.
• You must apply for an extension if your company’s filing deadline falls on 6 April 2021 or later and you need more time to file your accounts.

Further information

• Companies House provides a range of examples of deadlines, see Companies House Temporary Changes to filing deadlines.
• The Companies etc. (Filing Requirements) (Temporary Modifications) Regulations 2020 ('the regulations') came into force on 27 June 2020. They apply to public companies (PLCs), private companies, LLPs, Societas Europaeas (SEs), overseas companies and European Economic Interest Groupings (EEIGs) ('relevant entities') when those entities have to file documents or notices with Companies House.

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