Small Company Abridged Accounts

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE ECONOMIC CRIME & CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT 2023 IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING IMPLEMENTED AND WILL CHANGE MANY OF THE TEMPLATES BELOW. WE ARE CURRENTLY REVIEWING AND UPDATING ALL RELEVANT TEMPLATES.

Note that all of the information below is subject to the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which will implement the following changes:

Annual accounts will have to be filed electronically.
The option for small companies and micro entities to file abridged accounts will be removed.
All companies will be required to file profit and loss accounts (and small companies will have to file their directors' report).
A company claiming an audit exemption will need to provide an enhanced statement from the directors on the balance sheet.
Companies will be limited in how many times they can shorten their accounting reference period.

In addition, the Government has made Regulations that are expected to come into force for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025 that will increase company size thresholds. For small companies the turnover and balance sheet thresholds will increase from £10.2m to £15m and £5.1m to £7.5m respectively. For micro entites, turnover will increase from £632,000 to £1m and balance sheet total will increase from £316,000 to £500,000.

Small Companies (as defined by the Companies Act 2006) can choose to prepare and file a set of abridged or simplified accounts, provided they obtain unanimous shareholder consent. This subfolder contains the templates required to obtain shareholder consent. The templates in this sub-folder are only relevant to Small Companies.

A Small Company means one that for the financial year in question and the preceding financial year, meets at least two of the following:

annual turnover is not more than £10.2 million (£15 million after 6th April 2025);
balance sheet total is not more than £5.1 million (£7.5 million after 6th April 2025); and
average number of employees is not more than 50.

Abbreviated accounts may no longer be produced by a Small Company (or a Medium Sized Company as defined by the Companies Act 2006), meaning these companies must prepare and file the same set of accounts for its members as for the public record. Small Companies must decide at the point they are preparing their accounts whether or not to abridge them (or prepare micro entity accounts if they are within the relevant thresholds). Micro entities have their own accounting regime and the form of abridged accounts they prepare are not the same as for Small Companies. In particular they do not require shareholder consent. More information on micro entities and their accounting regime can be accessed here.

Abridged accounts contain a reduced set of information when compared to full accounts. The full requirements for Small Company abridged accounts and the relevant balance sheet formats can be found in the Small Companies, Partnerships and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2015. There is also helpful guidance from the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England & Wales (ICAEW) on the subject which can be accessed here. Our Guidance Note: Accounts & Audit also includes a discussion of abridged accounts for Small Companies and can be accessed here.

As unanimous shareholder consent is necessary for the preparation of abridged accounts, a statement is required to be made and delivered to the Registrar to indicate that the members have agreed to the abridgement. Members may only give consent in respect of the preceding financial year. If the company wishes to prepare abridged accounts on an on-going basis it must obtain unanimous shareholder consent each year, a rolling consent is not permitted. Abridged accounts must be identified as such to the Registrar at Companies House.

The documents below are a useful set of templates for directors, company administrators or advising accountants when embarking on the necessary shareholder consent procedure.

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