Small Companies Must File Profit and Loss Accounts From 2028: What the Companies House Changes Mean for You
If you run a small limited company, a change is heading your way, and it is worth knowing about now rather than the week it lands. From April 2028, small companies and micro-entities will have to file a profit and loss account at Companies House as part of their annual accounts. Before anyone panics, there is some reassurance in the detail: smaller businesses will be able to opt out of having that profit and loss account shown on the public register. Here is what it actually means, in plain English.
What is changing
At the moment, most small companies file a stripped-back set of accounts. In practice that usually means filing the balance sheet and leaving the profit and loss account out of the public record, so your turnover and profit stay off the register.
From April 2028, that will end. Small companies and micro-entities will have to include a profit and loss account when they file, and the option to file abridged accounts is being removed. So everyone files the fuller picture.
The part that softens it is publication. Following feedback from business owners and their advisers, Companies House has confirmed that small companies and micro-entities will be able to opt out of publishing their profit and loss account on the public register. So the position is:
- You will need to file it.
- Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement will be able to see it.
- You should be able to keep it off public view if you choose to.
The mechanism for opting out has not been published yet. Companies House has said the detail will follow “in due course”, so it is one to keep an eye on rather than act on today.
Why it is happening
The changes come from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which is designed to improve the quality and reliability of the information held at Companies House and to make the register harder to abuse.
The aim is better visibility of company finances and stronger protection against fraud and money laundering. Plenty of business owners raised the obvious concern that publishing profit figures hands commercially sensitive information to competitors, and the publication opt-out is the government’s answer to it.
It is not only about the profit-and-loss account.
The filing method is changing too. From April 2028, all companies will have to file their annual accounts using commercial software, with the figures digitally tagged in a format called iXBRL. The web and paper filing routes for accounts are closing.
This applies whether you file your own accounts or your accountant files them for you. (Confirmation statements and director updates carry on through the usual Companies House online service, so it is the accounts filing specifically that moves to software.) If you currently file directly through the Companies House website or work from spreadsheets, this is the change you need to plan for.
Do you need to do anything now?
Not yet. The rules do not take effect until April 2028, and that date was pushed back a year from the original 2027 plan precisely to give businesses time. You have a full accounting year plus nine months to prepare.
That said, if you are still running on spreadsheets, manual bookkeeping, or ageing software, this is a fair prompt to review how your accounts are prepared and filed. Sorting the systems out early tends to make regulatory changes a non-event rather than a scramble. Moving to cloud accounting software now also puts you ahead of Making Tax Digital, which is arriving on a similar timeline, so it is not an effort spent on a single deadline.
Our take
For most small businesses, the practical impact is smaller than it first sounds. You almost certainly already prepare a profit and loss account each year, because you need one for your tax return. The real change is that Companies House will now require it as part of the filing, and that accounts must be processed through commercial software.
What matters more is whether you are concerned about privacy, in which case the opt-out is the thing to watch, or whether you are still filing manually, in which case the software requirement is the thing to prepare for. Either way, there are a couple of years to get set, so there is no need to rush, just to be aware.
Here’s how we help
If we already file your company accounts, there is nothing for you to do here. We will have you on compatible software well before 2028, handle the filing in the new way, and advise on the publication opt-out once the details are confirmed. You will not have to track any of it.
The information in this article was correct at the time of publishing. It should not be used instead of professional advice.