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Companies House is a government-backed, executive agency under the remit of the Department for Business and Trade which oversees the formation and dissolution of limited companies. Companies House regulates a company’s information, including their “people with significant control”, address, and tax returns.
All UK-registered companies must be incorporated by Companies House. Moreover, all UK-registered companies must comply with Companies House’s reporting and filing requirements.
The purpose behind a confirmation statement (previously “annual return”) is to allow companies to confirm that their key information is accurate and to file a statement to this effect.
In order to file a confirmation statement, you must have:
If your company does not satisfy the following, you will need a WebFiling account to file your confirmation statement:
Also known as “statutory accounts”, a company’s annual accounts are compiled at the end of your company’s financial year from the company’s financial records.
Companies House require you to send copies of your annual accounts to:
Note that, under new rules in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, both small companies and micro entities are now also included in filing unabridged annual accounts.
Annual accounts must include:
All throughout, it is vital that your company’s annual accounts meet either International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting standards.
You are required to inform Companies House for changes including changes to a company’s:
It is important to bear in mind that many of these changes, such as registered office address, will not be official until confirmed by Companies House. Moreover, many of these changes, such as changes to a company’s directors, have a deadline for reporting to Companies House – some as brief as 14 days!
The Register of Overseas Entities came into force on 1 August 2022 following the passing of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act. Note that an overseas entity is defined by a legal entity which is governed by the law of a non-UK country or territory.
Who must register? Overseas entities who have bought buy property or land on or after
Registration is necessary in order for companies to obtain their overseas entity ID which allows them to buy or sell property or land in the UK.
The deadline for registration was 31 January 2023. However, if you are an overseas entity looking at buying land or property in the UK, you will need to register to do so.
How to register? Firstly, a UK-regulated agent who is based in the UK and supervised under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 must request an ‘agent assurance code’ by completing this document and emailing it to [email protected].
Once such an agent is procured, the agent must inform Companies House regarding various information relating to the agent, the company, the beneficial owner(s) (if there are none, then managing officer(s)), and any trusts that the beneficial owners are trustees of.
All the specifics of this information can be found here. Once Companies House accepts the application, an Overseas Entity ID will be provided. Note that there is a registration fee of £100.
An Overseas Entity Update Statement must be filled annually by all overseas entities on the Register of Overseas Entities. Overseas entities will be required to check and confirm that the entirety of the information held by Companies House on the Register of Overseas Entities remains accurate. If there have been any changes over the past 12 months, the update statement must amend them. Note that, even if no changes have occurred, an Overseas Entity Update Statement must still be filed.
The deadline for submission is within a year of the date the overseas entity was registered on the Register of Overseas Entities, or within a year of your last update statement. A grace period of 14 days from the statement date is given for overseas entities to file, after which, their update statement will be considered late.
Failure to submit your update statement on time will result in:
Once again, the update statement will need to be filed by your UK-regulated agent, and there will be an £120 filing fee. More information regarding the procedure and information required by Companies House can be found here.
Here at PD Tax, we offer an Accufile service aimed at relieving the hassle of filing documents with Companies House. We will prepare and submit the relevant documents for you and keep a watchful eye on upcoming deadlines, ensuring you and your business sidestep any late filing penalties.
Penalties for late filings have been introduced of up to £1,500 for private companies and £7,500 for public companies. Moreover, officers of companies can also face prosecution if an operating company fails to make on-time submissions to Companies House.
Our Accufile service takes the stress out of filing documents and statements with Companies House, allowing you to focus on your business.
PD Tax Consultants have a great deal of experience pertaining to providing Companies House compliance services to businesses. Our included services are listed below:
A wide range of loyal clients trust PD Tax to deliver the best possible service. Our clients regularly score us according to how likely they are to recommend PD Tax. We are proud of our excellent 30 Net Day Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 100, against an industry average of 43.
If you are concerned that you are not keeping up with Companies House compliance, or require assistance in corresponding with Companies House regarding these issues, please contact a member of our team today. We can offer an initial, no obligation 15-minute phone call to discuss your query and advise on the next steps.
"I use Paul, Ben and the team at PD tax for my own personal tax planning and for specialist tax help for a number of my clients, I have used them for the last couple of years. Their expertise is second-to-none and they are always looking for ways to save myself and my clients tax. I cannot recommend them highly enough."
RS Tax & Accountancy Services Ltd
Below is an example of a case study which highlights our proficiency regarding Companies House compliance:
The Problem
A client’s overseas company was coming under legal requirements to register before 31 January 2023 with the recently introduced UK Register of Overseas Entities. Failure to register would incur strict financial and criminal sanctions of up to £2,500 per day and up to 5 years in prison.
The Solution
The UK Register of Overseas Entities requires Overseas Entities who have bought land on or after 1 January 1999 to register with UK Companies House and tell them who their registerable beneficial owners or managing officers are.
After reviewing the relevant rules and government guidance which regulate the UK Register of Overseas Entities, we formulated an action plan.
After corresponding with our client and obtaining the required information, we acted as our client’s UK-regulated agent and applied to Companies House on behalf of our client to register their company on the UK Register of Overseas Entities.
The Result
Companies House accepted our application, and our client’s company was placed on the UK Register of overseas Entities, thus avoiding any penalties.
Our client was also granted their Overseas Entity ID Number, which is essential if our client wants to buy, sell, transfer, lease, or charge UK property or land via their company.