Abbreviated accounts were a reduced set of financial statements that small UK companies could deliver to Companies House instead of their full accounts. The category was removed from UK company law by regulations that took effect in 2016 and replaced with two different options, filleted accounts and abridged accounts, both governed by the Companies Act 2006. If you’re looking to file something like the old abbreviated accounts today, one of those two routes is what you want.
What Abbreviated Accounts Were
Under the pre-2016 regime, a company that qualified as small could prepare a stripped-down version of its accounts for the public register while keeping fuller information for its shareholders and HMRC. That filing category no longer exists. The 2015 regulations that took effect for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016 abolished it and put two replacements in its place, which work in quite different ways.
Filleted Accounts
Filleted accounts are the more common of the two replacements and the closest in spirit to the old abbreviated filing. The company prepares a full set of statutory accounts for its members and for HMRC, then omits the profit and loss account and the directors’ report from the version it sends to Companies House. Shareholder consent isn’t needed to do this. The balance sheet that is filed must carry a statement confirming that the accounts were delivered under the small companies regime and that the profit and loss account has not been filed.1GOV.UK. Preparing and Filing Companies House Accounts
If a company’s profit and loss account is not filed, the notes that relate solely to it can be left out as well, and the auditor’s report does not have to be filed either. What ends up on the public register is the balance sheet and the notes relating to it.
Abridged Accounts
Abridged accounts go a step further by simplifying the documents themselves rather than withholding pages. The company prepares a condensed balance sheet and, if it chooses, a condensed profit and loss account, with fewer line items than the standard formats require.
The trade-off is consent. Every member of the company must agree to the abridgement, and that agreement has to be obtained fresh each year, after the year end but before the accounts are approved. The balance sheet must include a statement confirming that all members consented to abridgement. For a company with more than a small handful of shareholders, this can be enough friction that filleted accounts become the more practical option for achieving similar privacy.
Who Qualifies as a Small Company
To use either route, a company has to meet the small companies regime criteria. Qualification requires satisfying at least two of three size tests. For financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025 the thresholds are:
- Turnover of £15 million or less
- Balance sheet total of £7.5 million or less
- 50 employees or fewer on average
These figures rose from the previous £10.2 million turnover and £5.1 million assets limits; the employee test stayed at 50.2GOV.UK. Prepare Annual Accounts for a Private Limited Company – Micro-entities, Small and Dormant Companies
Status doesn’t flip year by year. A company that already qualifies as small keeps that status until it has failed the tests in two consecutive financial years. A company that doesn’t currently qualify has to meet the criteria for two consecutive years before becoming small. A newly incorporated company qualifies straight away if it meets at least two of the three tests in its first financial year.
Micro-Entities
A smaller sub-tier, the micro-entity regime, offers the deepest reductions. Qualification again needs two of three:
- Turnover of £1 million or less
- Balance sheet total of £500,000 or less
- 10 employees or fewer on average
The turnover and asset limits went up from £632,000 and £316,000 for periods beginning on or after 6 April 2025, with the two-consecutive-years rule applying to entry and exit in the same way.2GOV.UK. Prepare Annual Accounts for a Private Limited Company – Micro-entities, Small and Dormant Companies A micro-entity can file just a simplified balance sheet, is completely exempt from preparing a directors’ report, and its notes are minimal. The public sees a bare snapshot of assets and liabilities.
Companies That Can’t Use the Regime
Meeting the size tests isn’t the whole picture. Section 384 of the Companies Act 2006 excludes certain companies regardless of size: public limited companies (whether their shares are traded or not), banking companies, authorised insurance companies, e-money issuers, and investment firms regulated under UK financial services law. Being in one of those categories at any point during the financial year disqualifies the company for that year. Groups have their own layer of rules: the group must qualify as small in aggregate, and groups containing a public company or a regulated financial entity are excluded entirely.
What Can Be Kept Off the Public Record
A small company filing filleted accounts can leave the following out of what it sends to Companies House:
- The profit and loss account, which is the most commercially sensitive document and the main reason most small companies file reduced accounts in the first place
- The directors’ report
- Notes that relate solely to the profit and loss account
- The auditor’s report, if the profit and loss account is not filed
What stays on the public register is the balance sheet and the notes tied to it, with a statement confirming delivery under the small companies regime.1GOV.UK. Preparing and Filing Companies House Accounts Full statutory accounts still have to be prepared for the shareholders and submitted to HMRC as part of the Company Tax Return.3GOV.UK. Prepare Annual Accounts for a Private Limited Company
Most small companies also qualify for audit exemption, since the audit thresholds match the small company size tests. Dormant companies with no significant transactions in the year are also exempt. The exemption isn’t automatic in every case: it can’t be used where an audit is required by other legislation, or where shareholders holding at least 10% of share capital have asked for one.4GOV.UK. Audit Exemption for Private Limited Companies
What’s Changing
The reduced-filing options that replaced abbreviated accounts are themselves on the way out. Proposals linked to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 would require small companies to file a profit and loss account and directors’ report on the public record, abolishing both filleted and abridged accounts.5GOV.UK. Changes to Accounts The original April 2027 target has been pushed back, and the government has committed to giving at least 21 months’ notice before any new requirements start.
Until then, filleted and abridged accounts remain available for qualifying companies. If your business currently relies on keeping its profit and loss account off the public register, it is worth knowing that this route has a shelf life, and that once the reforms take effect the room to limit public disclosure will depend on how the accounts themselves are structured within whatever the new rules allow.