Companies House pauses profit and loss filing for small companies
The government paused the plan to make small companies and micro-entities file a full profit and loss account from April 2028. The separate move to commercial software filing on the same date is going ahead as planned.
Practice Group10 min read · October 2026
Key points
On 23 October 2026 the government paused the requirement for small companies and micro-entities to file a full profit and loss account from April 2028. The pause is under review, with no new date set
Not paused: mandatory commercial software filing in iXBRL format for all accounts from 1 April 2028. WebFiling and paper routes for accounts close on that date
Not withdrawn: abridged accounts and filleted accounts both remain available after 1 April 2028
An estimated two million small companies, micro-entities and incorporated sole traders are affected by the paused requirement
The government rejected one Taskforce recommendation: dormant and non-trading companies keep their annual confirmation statement obligation, with no exemption
Correct any client letter that described a public profit and loss filing, an opt-out process, or the end of filleting as settled for 2028
General information for practice owners, current at the time of writing (October 2026). This is a pause under review with no new date set — confirm today's Companies House and GOV.UK position before advising a client on it.
On 23 October 2026, the government paused one part of the Companies House accounts reforms due on 1 April 2028. Small companies and micro-entities will not, for now, have to file a full profit and loss account. Software-only filing in iXBRL format is a separate part of the same package, and it was not paused: it still starts on the same date. If your firm has already told clients that profit and loss figures become a Companies House filing requirement in 2028, that statement needs correcting this week.
What the government announced on 23 October 2026
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds set out the change in a written statement to Parliament. The government will pause the requirement for small companies and micro-entities to file a profit and loss account from April 2028, while officials explore a "Tell Government Once" approach with HM Revenue and Customs. The stated aim is to stop companies supplying the same financial information twice: once in a tax return, and again as a public filing at Companies House.
The statement does not withdraw the policy. Companies House says it still sees value in holding profit and loss information, and the pause is under review, with no replacement date set. For a practice advising clients now, the planning position is straightforward: treat the profit and loss requirement as off the April 2028 filing list, and revisit it once the review reports.
Why ministers changed course
The Small Business Regulatory Taskforce put the pause to ministers. The Taskforce, working with the Federation of Small Businesses, made 15 recommendations for cutting red tape on small firms, and the government accepted 14 of them, including this one. Tina McKenzie, the Federation's national chair, described the result as "a huge step in the right direction" for the smallest businesses on the register.
The objection the Taskforce raised was cost and confidentiality together. An estimated two million small companies, micro-entities and incorporated sole traders would have had to prepare a profit and loss account to Companies House standard, several for the first time, and would then have faced wider public visibility of their margins. Reynolds framed the wider announcement around cutting duplicate reporting: a bakery owner, he said, should be filling pasties, not forms.
What is paused and what still goes ahead in April 2028
The package splits into two parts, and only one of them changed on 23 October.
Full profit and loss account filing for small companies and micro-entities
Paused. Not required from April 2028; no new date set
Abridged accounts
Remain available. Not withdrawn
Filleted accounts (profit and loss removed from what's published)
Remain available. Not withdrawn
Commercial software filing in iXBRL format, all accounts
Confirmed. Starts 1 April 2028
WebFiling and paper routes for accounts filings
Confirmed closure on 1 April 2028. Other filings, such as confirmation statements, stay on WebFiling
Confirmation statement exemption for dormant companies
Rejected. No exemption; the annual filing continues
Micro-entities and small companies keep their current size thresholds either way: a micro-entity meets two of turnover up to £1m, balance sheet total up to £500,000, and up to 10 employees; a small company meets two of turnover up to £15m, balance sheet total up to £7.5m, and up to 50 employees. Neither classification changed on 23 October. What changed is the filing content a small or micro company owes once it sits in one of those bands.
The confirmation statement recommendation the government rejected
Of the Taskforce's 15 recommendations, the government rejected one: a proposal to exempt small dormant and non-trading companies from filing an annual confirmation statement. Companies House's stated reason is that the confirmation statement is an annual checkpoint on the accuracy of the public register, and exempting dormant and non-trading companies from it would let incorrect information sit on the register unchecked. Dormant-company clients keep the same obligation they have now: one confirmation statement in every 12-month review period, due within 14 days of the end of that period, at the current £50 online filing fee.
Correcting client letters this week
Three groups of clients need a correction, and the message differs for each. Clients who were told a full profit and loss account would become a public filing requirement need to hear that this specific element is paused, with no new date set. Clients who asked about the opt-out from publication that was floated alongside the original plan need to hear that the opt-out question does not arise while profit and loss filing itself is on hold. Clients who are dormant or non-trading, and who may have expected an easing of their annual filing obligations, need to hear that the confirmation statement requirement continues unchanged.
Worked example — illustrative only
A two-partner firm sent engagement-renewal letters in September 2026 to 60 small-company clients, telling each one that from April 2028 their profit and loss account would need to be filed at Companies House and could be seen by a competitor. Reviewing the file on 24 October, the firm finds 45 of those letters already sent, 12 drafted but unsent, and 3 clients who had called in response, worried about a supplier seeing their margin. The task list for the week: a one-paragraph correction to the 45 already sent, a rewrite of the 12 drafted letters before they go out, and a call back to the 3 clients who asked. Nothing about the iXBRL software paragraph in those letters needs to change, so that part stays as drafted.
The software filing deadline is unchanged
The part of the reform most practices have been costing — moving every client onto commercial software that produces iXBRL accounts — keeps its 1 April 2028 date. Companies House will still close WebFiling and paper routes for accounts filings on that date, and any accounts filed on or after it must go through software. A dormant company filed through WebFiling today, or a legacy client sitting on an old software version without iXBRL tagging, still needs to move before the deadline.
The pause changes what small and micro companies file. It does not change the method or the date those filings use. Firms that built a 2026-27 project plan around both halves of the reform can keep the software migration timeline and drop the profit and loss element from client communications. The audit of filing routes, the costing of software tiers and the migration of legacy clients onto one platform all apply however the profit and loss question is eventually resolved, a pattern we also covered in our earlier piece on the April 2028 reforms.
What the pause means for advisory work and practice value
The pause removes, for now, one conversation practices were preparing to have: using a client's newly-prepared profit and loss account as the opening of an advisory discussion about margin and growth. That conversation is paused along with the filing requirement, and it returns if and when the government confirms a new date. Firms that already built the groundwork for it — a management accounts template, a consistent chart of accounts, a process for producing a profit and loss account to a filing standard — keep that work ready for when it is needed again.
For practice value, the relevant fact has not changed. A buyer assessing a firm in 2027 or 2028 still checks whether accounts production sits on one modern, iXBRL-capable platform or is spread across several systems and a WebFiling login. That assessment was always about the software half of the reform, and the pause leaves it exactly where it was before 23 October. Our Companies House identity verification checklist covers the other reform that came out of the same Act, and our guide to increasing the value of your practice covers how a buyer reads a firm's systems in diligence.
Has the Companies House profit and loss filing requirement been cancelled?
No. The government paused it, which is different from cancelling it. The written statement on 23 October 2026 describes the profit and loss requirement for small companies and micro-entities as under further review, with officials exploring a Tell Government Once approach with HM Revenue and Customs before deciding how to proceed. Companies House has said it still sees value in holding profit and loss data. Firms should expect the question to come back, and should not treat it as settled. The planning position for 2026 and 2027 is to drop the profit and loss requirement from client communications about April 2028, keep everything else about that date unchanged, and revisit the point once the review reports with a decision.
Does the pause change the 1 April 2028 deadline for software filing?
No. The move to mandatory commercial software filing in iXBRL format applies to all UK companies' accounts from 1 April 2028, and the written statement did not touch it. Companies House will still close its web and paper filing routes for accounts on that date. Firms auditing which clients file through WebFiling, legacy software or paper, and costing the licences needed to bring them onto an iXBRL-capable platform, should continue that work on the same timeline. The only change from 23 October 2026 is to what small and micro companies must file. The method and the date those filings use stay the same.
Can my small-company clients still file filleted or abridged accounts after April 2028?
Yes, for now. The original April 2028 package would have ended both options once a profit and loss account became a required part of every small and micro filing. Pausing the profit and loss requirement keeps the reason for ending filleting and abridged accounts on hold too, so both remain available after 1 April 2028 unless the government reaches a different decision later. Clients who filed a filleted balance sheet specifically to keep turnover and margin out of the public register can be told that position holds for now. Correct any client letter that already described filleting as ending, and watch for a further announcement once the Tell Government Once review with HMRC concludes.
What happened to the proposal to exempt dormant companies from confirmation statements?
The government rejected it. It was one of 15 recommendations from the Small Business Regulatory Taskforce, and the only one the government turned down. Companies House's reason is that the confirmation statement is an annual checkpoint on the accuracy of the public register, and exempting dormant and non-trading companies from it would let incorrect information sit on the register unchecked. Every company on your dormant-company list keeps its existing obligation: one confirmation statement in every 12-month review period, due within 14 days of the end of that period, at the current £50 online filing fee.
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