Reminder notices for Annual Returns and Accounts filing
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill is currently making its way through Parliament and should receive Royal Consent in early 2015. The bill contains a number of measures which together represent significant change for customers from a transparency point of view.
You should also bear in mind the PSC Register that is People with Significant Control which will be a mandatory public register.
This has prompted our software to start sending annual returns notifications now in order to get used to what will be a constantly changing time frame of filing requirements, especially when managing many clients companies.
Some Changes
The following three points from the Bill will prompt changes to the when and how annual information is filed.
• Simplification of the statement of capital and consistency throughout the Act
• A requirement to ‘check, and confirm’ the company information and notify changes if necessary at least once every 12 months. This will replace the current obligation to file an Annual Return.
• Companies will be able to deliver certain categories of optional information to the registrar
The simplification of the use of the statement of capital will apply for example when filing SH01 for the allotment of shares, not only will the statement of capital be updated, but the register of beneficial owners will also be updated, prompting an annual return to be filed on that date, this moving the filing date. Any filing that involve change of share capital including transfers will invoke this action.
In statement two for the check and confirm, if no changes are made in a year, there will be no requirement to file an annual return but a simple statement of no change.
In statement three for optional information one of the first to be listed is the description of the company’s trade the SIC code, our software already on an optional basis allow this information to be entered on incorporation and of course is stored ready for inclusion on an annual return that is generated from your company manager.
BTC Company Manager
Your company manager software looks after many parts of the web filing requirements with Companies House including the filing of the annual return for a small charge which can be booked to your account.
The annual return reminder is a handy reminder especially if your clients handle their own filings. As part of the same Bill the time to strike off companies will be reduced, this will come into force in just 10 months’ time, late filing of annual returns triggers the striking off event under the registrars administrative powers.
If you no longer act for a client you receive a reminder for, just simply email us and we will remove them from your list. If you do not want to receive any notifications we can simply remove your firm from the automated list.