Q. Can I change the year end for my company and how do I do this?

A. You can change your company’s year end - which is also known as its ‘accounting reference date’ - to make your company’s financial year run for more or less than 12 months.

You are only able to do this for your company’s current financial year or the one immediately before it. If you change your company’s year end, you will also change your deadline for filing accounts, unless you are lengthening your company’s first financial year.

You can shorten your company’s financial year as many times as you wish and - the minimum period you can shorten it by is one day. You can lengthen your company’s financial year to a maximum of 18 months (or longer if your company is in administration) once every five years.

You can only lengthen the financial year more often than every five years if the company is in administration, you’re aligning dates with a subsidiary or parent company or you have special permission from Companies House. You are unable to change your company’s year end when its accounts are overdue.

You can apply online to change your year end using the Companies House online service. Alternatively, you can download and fill in the application form and submit it by post to the address on the form. Changing your company’s year end at Companies House will normally affect your company’s accounting period for Corporation Tax and what steps you need to take depends on whether you’ve shortened or lengthened your financial year.