TaxCalc Blog

Companies House Same day services suspended

Same day services

Due to the closure of Companies House office, the ability to fast track company registrations and certain company information has been SUSPENDED until further notice. Companies House have advised customers that any incorporation or change of name filings with the same day indicator will fail validation with the following message:

XML validation failure message:
Companies House same-day services are not currently available. Do not submit applications with the SameDay indicator set as true. The SameDay indicator must be set as false.

A ‘Same day’ submission applies to an Incorporation (IN01) or Change of Name forms (NM01 and NM04). Within Company Incorporator the option ‘Same Day Incorporation’ is provided when submitting an Incorporation by selecting File to Companies House (under Finish). Within Companies House Forms, the option ‘Request same day change’ is included on Page 1 of the NMxx forms. Please DO NOT select either of these options until further notice.

Filing Accounts

Whilst Companies House offices are closed, customers are being encouraged to file on-line as they are experiencing delays in processing paper forms. Companies are also being warned that penalties will still be applied for late filing of accounts, even if the cause is due to the impact of COVID-19. They are advising companies to apply to extend the period allowed for filing, if they are in danger of submitting late accounts.

Appeal a penalty

If an extension is not applied for and the accounts are filed late, automatic penalties will still be imposed and can be appealed by email. Companies House has stated that each appeal is treated on a case-by-case basis and they already have policies in place to deal with appeals based upon unforeseen poor health. Appeals based upon COVID-19 will be considered under these policies, which are explained on the appeal form.

Filing other documents

Companies House have requested that on-line services be used where possible. Most forms can be filed this way and for the small number that cannot, they are urgently working on an upload service.

Companies House coronovirus guidance is being regularly updated.