Companies Act 1985

227 Directors' duty to prepare annual accounts

(1) In the case of every company, the directors shall in respect of each accounting reference period of the company prepare a profit and loss account for the financial year or, if it is a company not trading for profit, an income and expenditure account.

(2) Where it is the company's first accounting reference period, the financial year begins with the first day of that period and ends with—

(a) the date on which the accounting reference period ends, or

(b) such other date, not more than 7 days before or more than 7 days after the end of that period, as the directors may determine;

and after that the financial year begins with the day after the date to which the last preceding profit and loss account was made up and ends as mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) above.

(3) The directors shall prepare a balance sheet as at the last day of the financial year.

(4) In the case of a holding company, the directors shall secure that, except where in their opinion there are good reasons against it, the financial year of each of its subsidiaries coincides with the company's own financial year.