The Government recently passed the new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.
This make some changes to Company law and , in particular, changes filings at Companies House.
This blog post is designed to tell you about the main changes that are coming up. These all apply from 4 March 2024
Confirmation Statement changes
Every company must file a Confirmation Statement every year. This tells Companies House of any changes to the shareholders in the company in the previous year and conforms all the filings made since the last Confirmation Statement, Such as director changes (appointment and resignation plus address changes for example).
The first change that is coming up is that every company must supply a registered email address to Companies House. This is an email address that Companies House can use to contact the directors. This email address will not be published on the public register.
When we are preparing your Confirmation Statement after 4 March 2024, we will be asking you to give us the email address you wish to use. Without such a confirmation we will not be able to file your Confirmation Statement. This email address is not your accountants but must be one of the directors.
If you have multiple companies, you can use the same email address for each of those companies.
New companies will be required to give this information at incorporation.
The second change is that the shareholders will need to confirm that the company is set up for a lawful purpose and make a lawful purpose statement in the Confirmation Statement.
The intention of these new statements is to make it clear that all companies on the register, new and existing, have a duty to operate in a lawful way. We may take action against your company if we receive information that confirms you’re not operating lawfully.
This is done as part of the filing. Where we file the Confirmation Statement for you we will be asking you to confirm this to us, by e-mail.
Failure to give us this information, by e-mail, will result in a delayed filing.
New companies will be required to make a statement at incorporation that their intended future activities are lawful.
Registered office changes
From 4 March 2024, there’ll be new rules for registered office addresses which mean companies must have an ‘appropriate address’ as their registered office at all times. An appropriate address is one where:
any documents sent to the registered office should be expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company
any documents sent to that address can be recorded by an acknowledgement of delivery
These changes mean you will not be able to use a PO Box as your registered office address from 4 March 2024.
Client’s who use our address will continue to meet this requirement but if you are using another address please ensure that it meets these requirements.
If you’re currently using a PO Box as your registered office address, you’ll need to change it by 4 March 2024.
Companies that do not have an appropriate registered office address could be struck off the register. When Companies House identify an inappropriate registered office address, they will change it to a default address held at Companies House. The company must then provide an appropriate address, with evidence of a link to that address, within 28 days. If they do not receive this evidence, they will start the process to strike the company off the register.