How much do Companies House fees cost in 2026? The filing fees a practice pays for company clients, worked for 60 companies

Incorporating a company online costs £100, and the yearly confirmation statement costs £50 online, on the Companies House fee list read on 1 October 2026. The same two filings on paper cost £124 and £110. A practice that files for 60 company clients pays about £3,500 a year to Companies House, so the fees need their own line in the engagement letter and on the invoice.

The fee list has no entry for filing annual accounts. Filing them late is priced separately, in our Companies House late filing penalty calculator.

The fees a practice meets

The fee page was last updated on 25 September 2026, and its change history records "Fees updated" on 1 February 2026. These are the lines a small practice uses. "None listed" means the list shows no fee for that route.

An LLP pays the same £50 or £110 for its confirmation statement. Incorporating an LLP costs £100 through software and £124 on paper.

Three smaller fees turn up now and then:

• removing a home address or other personal detail from the register: £34 for each document, on a paper application;
• a certified copy of a document, or a certificate of incorporation, by post: £22, or £65 same day;
• registering the practice as an authorised corporate service provider: £63, in the registrar's fees determination in force from 1 July 2026. Our guide to Companies House identity verification explains what that registration allows.

One confirmation statement fee in each payment period

Companies House's guidance, updated on 21 April 2026, says the annual fee is paid with the first confirmation statement filed in a 12-month payment period. Any further statements in that period cost nothing.

The payment period is not the review period. It covers 12 months starting with the date of incorporation, and the company cannot change it. In the guidance's own example the payment period runs from 1 January to 31 December 2022. A statement filed on 30 September 2022 carries the fee, a second on 1 December 2022 is free, and one filed on 5 January 2023 is charged again.

So a client who files an extra statement to record a share transfer does not pay twice.

The statement can be filed up to 14 days after the review period ends. The guidance says a company that does not file can be fined up to £5,000 and struck off.

A year's bill for a practice with 60 company clients

Take a practice that acts for 60 limited companies. In a year it files 60 confirmation statements, forms 4 new companies, changes 2 company names and strikes off 3 dormant companies.

Filing online saves £3,731 over paper. If the practice registers as an authorised corporate service provider in the same year, the online total is £3,542.

£3,479 a year is £289.92 a month. Unless each fee is collected before the filing, the practice is lending that to its clients.

Passing the fee on: disbursement or recharge

Whether VAT goes on a Companies House fee billed to a client depends on how it is passed on. GOV.UK's guidance on disbursements lists eight conditions, all of which must apply before a payment can be left out of the VAT calculation. Six turn on how the engagement letter and the invoice are written:

• the practice paid the supplier on the client's behalf, acting as the client's agent;
• it was the client's responsibility to pay, not the practice's;
• the client gave permission for the payment;
• the client knew the service came from another supplier;
• the cost is shown separately on the invoice;
• the exact amount is passed on.

Shown as its own line at £50. The engagement letter says the practice will pay Companies House fees for the client and pass them on at cost. The invoice lists "Companies House confirmation statement fee, £50" below the practice's own fee. That can be treated as a disbursement, with no VAT added to the £50.

Rolled into a fixed fee, or rounded up to £60. The exact amount is no longer passed on as a separate item, so the conditions are not met, the £50 stays inside the VAT calculation, and a VAT-registered practice charges VAT on it. At 20%, that is £10 on each £50 fee and £600 across 60 clients. A client that is not VAT registered cannot claim it back.

GOV.UK adds that disbursements left out of the VAT calculation must be itemised separately on the VAT invoice. Each practice has to test its own wording against all eight conditions.

What to do this month

1. List each company client's confirmation statement date and payment period.
2. File online or through software. Paper more than doubles the confirmation statement fee, £110 against £50.
3. Name the fees in the engagement letter. Say they are paid on the client's behalf, with the client's permission, and passed on at the exact amount.
4. Give each fee its own invoice line. Do not round it.
5. Collect the fee before filing.
6. Check the directors' personal codes first. The filing service says that where a company has more than one director, the person filing must have each director's personal code. Our new client onboarding checklist has the step for a director who has not yet verified.

Our client fee calculator shows whether the practice's own fee for this work covers the hours.

Overlyft can set up an AI assistant that holds each client's Companies House dates and tells the partner each morning which filings fall due in the next 30 days. The filing, the fee and the invoice stay with the practice.

This is general information, not professional advice.