Reform is coming at Companies House

The systems and requirements at Companies House have remained unchanged for a number of years, allowing for discrepancies to occur. As with most areas, this is now being addressed, and guidance has been released as to what changes are expected. These are radical changes, and will take some time to implement, and with no clear timescale, preparations may be left. However, it is important to ensure your housekeeping is in order, so once these changes are implemented, they have minimal impact on your business. The onus will be on the Companies to get this right, as failure to comply will result in legal action.

What are the changes?

A White Paper has been published recently, setting out the Governments final position on changes that are on its way. Whilst there is no definite timescale for these to happen, they are coming, and action should be taken sooner rather than later.

Changes include:

• anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK will need to verify their identity with Companies House

Whilst there will be a transition period for these changes to be made, not adhering to these changes will result in a criminal action, for both the Company, and the individual.

Verification will mean that every individual will be linked to the correct Company. They will become easily traceable, removing the small anomalies that means this is not possible at present.

Current directors and PSC’s will have time to complete this verification.

Other items include:

• Companies House will be given the power to challenge suspicious information, and to inform security agencies of potential wrongdoing
• company agents from overseas will no longer be able to create companies in the UK on behalf of foreign criminals
• the quality of information provided to Companies House will be improved, so that companies who rely on it to make business decisions can trust who they are doing business with
• filing processes for small businesses will be streamlined and digitised using iXBRL
• company directors will be better able to protect personal information published by Companies House which might put them at risk of fraud or other harm

Other changes that are mentioned are the inclusion of the Profit and Loss account for all Companies. There will no longer be the option to suppress this information for Small or Micro Entities.

How can Haines Watts help?

We advise clients with a broad range of matters relating to all forms of companies that are incorporated and registered with Companies House throughout the South West region.

If you would like to have a conversation to understand the complexities of the above, please get in touch with your usual Haines Watts contact.