Companies House fee increases from 1 May 2024

Paying fees

If your accountancy firm does not currently have a Companies House presenter code with a credit facility enabling you to pay fees in arrears, now could be a sensible time to obtain one. The ability to be charged in arrears can aid cashflow for accountancy businesses, an advantage which will be even more valuable once fees are at a higher level.

If you pay Companies House fees via your Inform Direct account rather than a presenter code, the process will continue to operate in the same way. When a chargeable form is filed the system will determine whether a fee is payable, taking into account that for the confirmation statement only one fee is payable per confirmation period. It will also identify whether any fee payable is at the old rate or the new higher rate. The increased amount you pay to Inform Direct when making a submission will only be to cover the uplift in the Companies House filing fee.

If you already pay filing fees via a presenter code with a credit facility, we suggest making contact with Companies House to ensure your credit limit is increased. We would hope that Companies House will automatically increase presenters’ credit facility to accommodate the higher fees, but accountants will want to be sure.

Other planning points for accountants

Accountants may wish to consider how best to communicate the increase in Companies House fees to their clients. If, in the past, you have bundled the filing fee into a combined service charge, it may now be sensible to itemise and show separately the higher cost of submissions. Given the early signs that Companies House intends actively to use its new powers to query and challenge information, potentially meaning more work for accountants, some may use the opportunity to review their own charges at the same time.

In particular, accountants will need to consider communicating with clients who have transactions due around 1 May 2024, firstly to ensure the client pays you the correct fee for filing.

Moreover, by bringing a new company formation forward, for example, it will be possible to make a saving on the filing fee for incorporation. Some accountants may even consider filing confirmation statements early, if they are due in later months. However, the efficacy of this approach would depend on each company’s confirmation statement payment period. It would also change the date at which the next confirmation statement would need to be filed, potentially creating an unwelcome spike in workload for future years.

Our thoughts

The increase in fees will be unwelcome to many, although Companies House’s fees have before now remained unchanged since 2016. They also remain low compared to many eurozone jurisdictions. Comparatively low fees for many years have been good news for entrepreneurs – with over 600,000 new UK companies formed in 2023 alone – but some argue that a low cost makes it too easy to form a UK business, and helps to facilitate fraudulent use of UK companies.

Companies House is also keen to reiterate that the fee changes purely reflect its increased costs, particularly linked to implementation of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. This law gives Companies House the scope of utilise a range of new powers, and will require internal system, process and staff development. Some of the increase in fees may anticipate future developments, such as identity verification for company directors and PSCs, although Companies House has not ruled out further fee increases in future years on the same cost-recovery basis.

That justification may come as limited comfort to many companies. That includes all those dormant companies which receive no income but must still file a confirmation statement each year. We also hope Companies House will be keen to demonstrate that the use of its new powers is efficiently targeted at fulfilling its important statutory objectives. It will be especially important that the powers to query and challenge information supplied to the Registrar are used strategically, as they will increase demands on companies and their professional advisers who are funding the change.

Company incorporation and registration fees

Limited liability partnerships

Overseas companies

Limited partnerships

Scottish qualifying partnerships

UK Economic Interest Groupings and UK Societas

Overseas entities

All filings for the Register of Overseas Entities must be filed digitally. The only exception is for those who have protected status or a pending protection application. This group will need to pay a separate paper fee.

Community interest companies