Following on from the information which we sent by email last week about the new Confirmation Statement, which replaces the Annual Return, there has been some misunderstanding about the filing of the new style Confirmation Statement. This is replacing the Annual Return, but the filing dates have not changed.
Whatever your filing date was for the Annual Return, it will be the same for the Confirmation Statement. This means that, for most clients, there is nothing for file for quite some time, maybe even a whole year if a filing has only just been done.
We are updating our web guidance about the new filing regime, and this will be available in a few days – until Companies House went live we couldn’t prepare.
We are also preparing a new guide relating specifically to the new requirements for companies to prepare and maintain a “PSC Register” – (PSC meaning People/Persons with Significant Control). We will let you know once this guidance is ready – it should be soon. We will include a template for the register which you are free to adopt if you wish (obligatory for clients who want us to file their Confirmation Statements for them).
The important messages are (a) don’t panic – this is no immediate filing requirement, and (b) from an initial testing of the new statement, it doesn’t look too different to the old style Annual Return, so it is very likely that, if, you have previously been filing the old style return yourself, you won’t have any difficulties filing the new statement, however it is considerably more detailed than the old annual return, certainly for the first year.
Because the form is more detailed, we’ve had to raise our fee for supporting clients in filing – an increase from £30 to £48. Sorry about that.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any queries on the migration to the new form. Our detailed guidance, plus form to ask us to complete the Confirmation Statement for you, is here