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.
Small Companies (as defined by the Companies Act 2006) can now 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 subfolder 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 £6.5 million;
- balance sheet total is not more than £3.26 million; 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.
- Abridged Accounts Consent Letter to Members
- Pro Forma Consent Reply Letter From Members
- Confirmation Letter to Shareholders Regarding Abridging Company Accounts
- Confirmation Letter to Companies House of Members' Consent to Abridged Accounts
- Cover Letter to Companies House Regarding Abridging Company Accounts
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