File it now. A late confirmation statement can bring a financial penalty and, if it is ignored long enough, get your company struck off the register entirely. Filing it today costs £50 online. Getting a struck off company back costs £341 plus everything you did not file, and only if you qualify.
That gap, £50 against £341 and a court application if you are unlucky, is the whole of this article. A missed confirmation statement deadline is cheap to fix and expensive to ignore, and the price goes up at every stage you let it pass.
When your confirmation statement is due
Your confirmation statement covers a review period. It runs from the date your company was incorporated, if this is your first one, or from the confirmation statement date on your last one. You can file up to 14 days after the review period ends, and Companies House sets this out in its confirmation statement guidance.
Two things people get wrong. First, you must file even if nothing has changed. The statement confirms the record is correct, so "no changes" is a reason to file quickly, not a reason to skip it. Second, filing early does not cost you anything: your next review period simply starts the day after the date you confirm.
What happens if you file a confirmation statement late
Companies House is direct about the consequences. It may issue a financial penalty, and your company may be struck off the register if you do not file.
It is worth separating this from late accounts, because people conflate the two. Late accounts carry an automatic penalty on a fixed scale. A late confirmation statement works differently: the serious risk is not a fixed fine landing on the mat, it is the registrar concluding that a company which has stopped filing has also stopped trading, and beginning the process of removing it.
That is why "I will get to it" is the expensive answer. Nothing dramatic happens the day after the deadline passes. The damage accumulates quietly until a letter arrives.
If you have had a strike off notice
Before a company is struck off, notice is published in The Gazette. That publication is the point at which the process becomes public and, usefully, the point at which it can be objected to.
If you are the director and the notice relates to your own company, the answer is to bring the filings up to date and tell Companies House the company is still trading. If your company applied to be struck off and you have changed your mind, a director can withdraw the application.
If you are on the other side of it, a creditor watching a company that owes you money head for dissolution, you can object to the company being struck off. You can only object once the Gazette notice has been published, and you need evidence such as invoices showing the debt. This matters more than it sounds: once a company is dissolved, the money owed to you is a great deal harder to chase.
If the company has already been struck off
This is recoverable, but the conditions are strict. Administrative restoration is available only if all three of these are true:
- you were a director or shareholder
- it was struck off and dissolved by the registrar within the last 6 years
- it was trading at the time it was dissolved
Miss any one of those and you need a court order instead, which means a solicitor and a materially larger bill.
If you do qualify, you send Companies House a completed form RT01, a cheque for £341, every outstanding document including the accounts and confirmation statements you never filed, any filing fees and penalties owed, and, if the company held assets, a waiver letter from Bona Vacantia.
That last point catches people out. When a company is dissolved its assets do not sit and wait for you. They pass to the Crown. Money in the company bank account, a vehicle, equipment, the lot. Getting them back is a separate process from getting the company back.
What it costs at each stage
| Where you are | What it costs | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Within 14 days of your review period ending | £50 online | File. You are not late. |
| Late, no notice received | £50 online, penalty possible | File today. This is the cheap moment. |
| Gazette notice published | £50 plus any penalty | File everything outstanding and tell Companies House the company is still trading |
| Struck off, meets all 3 conditions | £341 plus outstanding fees and penalties | Form RT01, with a Bona Vacantia waiver if there were assets |
| Struck off, does not meet all 3 | Court order, so solicitor's costs on top | Take legal advice |
Paper filing is £110 rather than £50, so unless you are restoring a company, which requires the paper form CS01, file online.
The trap that stops people filing
This one is new, and it catches people at exactly the wrong moment.
Since identity verification became a legal requirement, you need a Companies House personal code to file a confirmation statement. If your company has more than one director, you need every director's personal code, not just your own.
So the sequence that keeps happening is this. Someone realises the statement is late, sits down to file it, and discovers they cannot, because a co-director has never verified their identity. That co-director might be a spouse who has nothing to do with the day to day running of the company, or someone who no longer reads company email. Now the filing is blocked on somebody else, and the clock is still running.
If you are already late, check this before you sit down to file, not after. There is more on what each director and PSC has to do in our guide to Companies House identity verification.
What to do today
- Look up your company on the Companies House register and find the confirmation statement due date. It takes a minute and it is free.
- Check whether a strike off notice has been published. If it has, that changes the urgency from this month to this week.
- Check that every director has a personal code, before you try to file rather than after.
- File the statement. £50 online.
- Deal with anything else that is outstanding at the same time, particularly accounts and your own director Self Assessment, since a company behind on one deadline is usually behind on another.
- Set a reminder for next year, or hand the job to someone whose problem it becomes.
If you have had a letter and you are not sure how serious it is, send us your company number and the letter. We will tell you which stage you are actually at and what it takes to clear it. If it turns out you are fine, we will tell you that too.
And if this has happened because nobody was watching the dates on your behalf, that is worth addressing rather than repeating. Filing deadlines are the part of the job that should never reach you as a surprise. Here is how switching accountants works if it has come to that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Companies House says it may issue a financial penalty, and that your company may be struck off the register if you do not file. Filing late is far better than not filing, because the strike off process only starts once the registrar believes the company is no longer carrying on business.
You can file up to 14 days after your review period ends. After that it is late. There is no grace period beyond the 14 days, and the obligation does not go away just because nothing about the company has changed.
Yes. Companies House states plainly that your company may be struck off if you do not file. A notice is published in The Gazette first, which is your window to act.
Administrative restoration costs £341 payable to Companies House, plus any outstanding documents, filing fees and penalties. If the company held assets you also need a waiver letter from Bona Vacantia. Compare that with £50 to file the statement on time.
You can apply for administrative restoration on form RT01 if you were a director or shareholder, it was struck off by the registrar within the last 6 years, and it was trading at the time it was dissolved. If you do not meet all three, restoration needs a court order.