Companies House fee changes from 1 February 2026

A summary of the fees which have changed is shown below.

Companies House has confirmed that the new fees will be chargeable based on when a submission is made. For example, therefore, a confirmation statement submitted on 5 February 2026 would be charged the new, higher fee, even if it made up to a date before 1 February 2026.

Paying fees

A Companies House presenter code with a credit facility enables firms of accountants to pay fees in arrears. If your firm hasn’t yet done so, now could be an appropriate time to do so. A credit account can provide a significant cashflow benefit, especially once key fees increase. There are a number of other significant benefits.

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. 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 and requesting for your credit limit to be increased. While we’d hope that Companies House will automatically increase presenters’ credit facilities to take account of higher headline fees, accountants will want to be sure.

Other planning points for accountants

Accountants will need to consider how to communicate the increase in Companies House fees to clients. It is potentially a further argument to unbundle a combined service charge into individual elements, in part to show separately the higher cost of Companies House submissions. Accountants may also use the opportunity to review their own charges, given the impact of ECCTA on workloads.

Accountants will particularly need to consider communicating with those clients who have transactions due around 1 February 2026, in the first instance to ensure the client reimburses you the correct filing fee.

Furthermore, by bringing a new company incorporation before 1 February, for example, it will be possible to make a saving on the filing fee for formation. Some accountants may even consider filing confirmation statements early, if they are due in later months. However, the efficacy of this approach may still depend on each company’s confirmation statement payment period. It would also amend the date at which the next confirmation statement would need to be filed, potentially creating an unwelcome spike in workload for future years. Accountants may also be wary of bringing forward too much work, especially given the need for individual directors to have had their identity verified ahead of a company’s first confirmation statement filed from 18 November 2025.

Our thoughts

For most companies, the net change in fees will be an increase, based on the cost of filing the annual confirmation statement. That will naturally be unwelcome to companies, and especially all those dormant companies which receive no income but must still file a confirmation statement each year.

It is arguably more evident that, on this occasion, the Registrar has undertaken detailed analysis of operating costs than the last set of fee changes, on 1 May 2024, which were all upward – albeit after fees had previously been left at the same level for many years. Many will welcome those reassessments that reduce certain fees. While it may seem odd to reduce certain fees for paper filing, at a time when customers are encouraged to use online tools for submissions, this appears only to avoid a wide disparity where a digital filing fee has been reduced or on certain transactions where there is not yet a digital option.

Some fees remain comparatively low compared to eurozone jurisdictions, and increased fees to form companies – as well as the regime of identity verification of directors and persons with significant control introduced via ECCTA on 18 November 2025 – will play some role in discouraging the fraudulent use of UK companies. However, the art of messaging that the UK is open for business is perhaps made harder where fees for forming companies are doubled at the same time as fees for voluntarily dissolving businesses are, at least in the digital world, more than halved.

Companies House is typically keen to reiterate that the fee changes purely reflect its increased costs, especially linked to implementation of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. It remains incumbent on the Registrar to demonstrate that the use of its new powers is efficiently targeted at fulfilling its important statutory objectives, and that further projects to implement and embed ECCTA are well designed and implemented.

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

Search fees

Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) registration fees