Companies House has spent the last two years turning itself from a filing cabinet into a regulator, and 2026 is the year most owner-managed companies actually feel it. Here is what has already landed, what is coming, and what it means in practice for a small company.
Identity verification is the immediate one
Since 18 November 2025, every new director, person with significant control and LLP member has had to verify their identity before an appointment can be registered. Existing directors and PSCs are in a twelve-month transition that closes on 18 November 2026, with verification generally happening alongside the confirmation statement.
Companies House estimates six to seven million people are caught by this. If you are a director of more than one company, you verify once as an individual, not once per company. The practical advice is not to leave it until your confirmation statement is due, because a rush at the end of the transition is entirely predictable.
Agents and presenters: delayed, not cancelled
The requirement for anyone filing documents to be verified, and for third-party agents to be registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, was originally planned for spring 2026. It has been pushed back to no earlier than November 2026.
This matters less to you than to your accountant. We are already registered as an ACSP, so filings we make on your behalf are unaffected either way.
The accounts changes are the bigger deal, and the date has moved
The reform that genuinely changes what the public can see about your company is the accounts package: software-only filing with iXBRL tagging, the end of the web and paper filing routes, and small companies and micro-entities having to file a profit and loss account. Abridged accounts disappear.
This was originally set for 1 April 2027. Companies House has since indicated those changes will not come in on that date and remain under review, with the profession now working to an expected date of 1 April 2028. Treat the date as movable and the direction as settled.
What it means for a small company
The substance is that your profit and loss account has to be filed. At the moment a small company can file a balance sheet and leave the rest out. Once the P&L is required, it goes to Companies House alongside everything else.
There is a concession: small companies and micro-entities will be able to opt out of publishing the P&L on the public register. It is still filed, and Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement still see it, but competitors and customers need not. How the opt-out will work has not yet been confirmed, so do not assume it will be applied automatically. If you would rather your figures stayed private, that is a decision to make deliberately at the year end.
Also worth knowing
Filing fees rose again from 1 February 2026, and the registrar's power to reject filings from disqualified directors is being switched on. The option to keep your register of members centrally at Companies House was removed in January 2026, so those registers need to sit at your registered office or SAIL address.
What to do now
Verify your identity if you have not already. Check your registered office is a real address you monitor and your registered email works. Check your PSC details are actually right, because verification is when errors surface. And if you have been filing the bare minimum at Companies House, start thinking about 2028 now, including whether you want to use the opt-out.
