Companies House has replaced the Annual Return with the Confirmation Statement with effect from 30th June 2016.
From now every company must confirm to Companies House that the information held about it is correct by delivering a Confirmation Statement. If the information held is out of date the company must file the information needed to update its records before, or at the same time that it delivers the Confirmation Statement.
The exception to this is if your Annual Return was due on or before 30th June 2016 then you must file it as normal and move to a Confirmation Statement in future.
It’s a criminal offence to not file your Confirmation Statement within 14 days of the end of the review period. If you don’t do this the company and its officers may be prosecuted. This replaces the 28 days previously allowed for filing an Annual Return.
To make a confirmation statement, you must have notified Companies House of changes to the:
- company’s registered office
- company’s directors (appointments, terminations of appointments, and director’s details – e.g. service address, surname, etc.)
- company’s secretary (appointments, terminations of appointments, and secretary’s details – e.g. service address, surname, etc.)
- location of the company’s registers (i.e. whether they are kept at the company’s registered office or at a single alternative inspection location (SAIL).
If you have forgotten to tell Companies House about any changes to this information you must notify them, online or by completing the usual forms, at the same time as you send the Confirmation Statement.
You’ll get an email alert or a reminder letter to your company’s registered office when your confirmation statement is due. The due date is usually a year after either: the date your company incorporated, or the date you filed your last Annual Return or Confirmation Statement. You can file your confirmation statement up to 14 days after the due date.
You must make a confirmation statement even if there haven’t been any changes during the review period.
The annual fee for a confirmation statement filed electronically is £13. The annual fee for a confirmation statement filed on paper is £40. You need to pay the relevant amount along with the first confirmation statement you file for each twelve-month period. If you file more than one confirmation statement in a twelve-month period, you’ll only need to pay the fee once.
Companies only have to file one confirmation statement every twelve months. However, you can choose to file a confirmation statement early, or more frequently than once a year.
The Confirmation Statement can be completed online or by completing form CS01 with further detailed guidance available from the Companies House website.
By GCMA
