Companies House will want your shop's profit from 2028

From April 2028, a small limited company will have to send Companies House its profit and loss account, and the whole set of accounts will have to go in through commercial software. For an ecommerce business that has only ever filed a slim balance sheet, that is the first time Companies House asks for turnover and profit. Small companies will be able to keep that page off the public record. Companies House has not yet said how.

The register is free to search, and a rival or a supplier setting your credit terms can read it as easily as you can. For a seller with good margins, whether the figures are published matters more than the filing itself.

What Companies House announced

The changes come from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and were due in April 2027. On 9 June 2026 the government confirmed the package and moved it to April 2028, giving companies what it calls "one full accounting year, plus 9 months (21 months) to get ready".

For a small company or micro-entity, which covers most online shops, the changes are these:

• The profit and loss account goes to Companies House, as it already does for larger companies, with an option to keep it off the public register.

• Abridged accounts, the cut-down version many small companies file now, go.

• Accounts can only be filed through commercial software, in a tagged format called iXBRL (Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language). The web and paper routes close for accounts. They stay open for other filings, such as the confirmation statement.

• A company that wants to shorten its accounting year more than once in five years will have to give a business reason.

Published, or kept off the record

The opt-out is the part most sellers will care about. The government says it answers concerns about "the privacy and commercial risks for smaller companies" of showing these figures. It is equally clear about what the opt-out does not do. Where a company uses it, Companies House, law enforcement and HMRC "will still have access".

How you opt out "will be confirmed in due course". Until Companies House publishes the mechanics, nobody can tell you whether it is a box on each filing or a separate application, or whether it carries conditions. Plan on the rules as they are published today.

Which year end meets it first

The software rule has a firm trigger. Companies House's guide to the accounts changes says "all accounts filings made on or after 1 April 2028" must go through commercial software. It gives no equivalent sentence for the profit and loss requirement or the end of abridged accounts, beyond the April 2028 start, so the exact first set those apply to is still to be confirmed.

A private company normally has nine months after its financial year ends to file. That is why the change lands on different shops at different times.

Illustration, not a real client: two homeware sellers, each trading through a small limited company. One has a 30 June year end. Its accounts to 30 June 2027 are due by 31 March 2028, the last day before the software rule starts. Filed on time, they can still go in through the Companies House website. Filed a day late, they need software. The other has a 31 December year end. Its accounts to 31 December 2027 are due by 30 September 2028, so unless it files them before 1 April 2028, they have to go through software.

HMRC moved first

The tax side has already changed. HMRC's free service for filing company accounts and Company Tax Returns closed on 31 March 2026. Since 1 April 2026, HMRC's guidance says, companies should use commercial software to file accounts and returns with it, with paper only for those who have a reasonable excuse or are filing in Welsh.

So a seller who used to do both filings themselves through the two free government services has already lost one of them. From April 2028 the second goes. For a company with one director and a single sales channel, this is the point at which doing it alone starts to cost money as well as evenings: software that can produce tagged accounts, or accountants who prepare year-end accounts for online sellers and already file that way.

Whichever route you choose, the books underneath matter more than they did. A profit and loss account sent to Companies House should agree with the one sent to HMRC, and for an online seller that means gross sales, platform fees, refunds and stock recorded in the right month rather than a bank balance with a sales figure guessed backwards. Our note on what the reforms change for small companies sets out the old and new filings side by side.

The first practical step costs nothing. Look up your company's next accounts due date on Companies House, count forward from 1 April 2028, and work out which year's accounts will be the first through software. Then check whether whatever you use now can file them.

About the author

Harvey Dhillon is Founder and CEO of Zmartly, a UK accountancy firm for ecommerce sellers. He grew up in West London and began his career in investment banking finance at Barclays, before going full-time on Zmartly in 2020. He is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA, CGMA).

Featured photo by Mota Ehdaei on Unsplash.