Nearly 100,000 UK companies have missed the legal deadline to file their annual accounts, with Glasgow ranking among the country’s worst areas for late submissions, new analysis has found.
Research by London-based accountancy firm Zmartly, based on more than five million active companies listed at Companies House, found 98,151 businesses are overdue on filing their annual accounts – around one in every 51 companies.
Glasgow was the fifth worst-performing postcode area in the UK, with 2.38% of companies filing their accounts late. Only Cardiff (3.01%), North London (2.52%), the City of London (2.52%) and Central London (2.47%) recorded higher rates. Manchester followed Glasgow on 2.33%.
The analysis also highlighted a “first-year cliff” for new businesses. Companies aged between 18 and 24 months – when first accounts become due – had a late filing rate of 11.73%, meaning almost one in eight missed the deadline. By comparison, only 1.46% of firms trading for more than a decade filed late.
Under Companies House rules, private companies face penalties ranging from £150 for accounts filed up to one month late to £1,500 for filings more than six months overdue. Fines are doubled if a company files late in two consecutive years.
Hospitality businesses were the least reliable at filing on time, with 2.81% overdue, followed by water and waste (2.80%) and education (2.46%). Agriculture (1.42%), health and social care (1.65%) and finance and insurance (1.67%) had the strongest compliance rates.
The research also found that 523,756 companies – around one in 10 – were overdue in filing their annual confirmation statement with Companies House.
Harvey Dhillon, founder of Zmartly, said many entrepreneurs were caught out by the timing of their first filing.
He said: “Nearly one in eight companies aged 18 to 24 months are late with their accounts, against fewer than one in 50 established firms. In our experience, the reason is almost always a knowledge gap, not negligence.
“Founders assume the first accounts work like the second, but a company’s first accounts are due 21 months after incorporation and cover a longer-than-usual first period, so the deadline arrives sooner and bigger than people expect.”
He urged new business owners to diarise their first filing deadline as soon as they incorporate and keep their bookkeeping up to date from the outset to avoid escalating penalties.
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