Companies House Confirmation Statement: The new annual return

Companies House has been busy trying to make your life easier with the new Companies House Confirmation Statement. In my opinion they’ve done a good job – here’s why;

All limited companies in the UK are registered at Companies House. Here they keep a record of various things, including who the directors are and who the shareholders are.

In the past all UK companies were required to file an Annual Return. This was in addition to the company’s year end accounts. The Annual Return, whilst not a lengthy document, was still a bit of a pain to fill in. It represented a snapshot of the company once per year so that there is a public record of what’s going on in any particular company.

Given that most companies don’t change that much from year to year, having to fill in the Annual Return form each year seemed like a bit of a waste of time.

Companies House, in recognition of this fact, have now changed the process from completing an Annual Return form, to submitting a “Confirmation Statement”.

As of the 30 June 2016 all companies at Companies House now have to submit a Confirmation Statement – the difference is limited but Companies House now adopt a “check and confirm” approach, making sure that the information held at Companies House is still accurate.

The differences between the Annual Return and the new Companies House Confirmation Statement

In reality, not a great deal has changed. The information needed to be provided has remained the same. The one area where there is additional information is around “People with Significant Control”, or PSC. This means that you need to make a declaration for any individual who has any of the following

• Holds more than 25% of the shares of the company
• Holds more than 25% of the voting rights of the company
• Has the right to appoint or remove the majority of directors

You still have to pay an annual submission fee to Companies House for £13.

With the changes they’ve brought in, if little has changed from last year, you should be able to complete your Confirmation Statement with very little effort.

Its not a big saving in time, but every little bit helps

To find out more check out https://www.gov.uk/prepare-an-annual-return-for-companies-house