Month: March 2024

As well as filing accounts with Companies House, there is an important requirement to check that the information Companies House has about your company is correct every year. This is facilitated by the filing of an annual company confirmation statement. Companies House can prosecute a company and its officers for failing to file a confirmation statement and the company can be struck off. 

Companies House guidance on the confirmation statement entitled Filing your company's confirmation statement has been updated with new measures introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.

A confirmation statement must usually be filed at Companies House once every 12 months and rather than resubmitting data every year the confirmation statement only needs to be updated if you have changes to report. If there are no changes then you just need to confirm the information is correct and submit the statement. The due date is usually a year after either the date your company incorporated or the date you filed your last annual fee was paid. You can file your confirmation statement up to 14 days after the due date. Any necessary updates such as to the statement of capital, shareholder information and SIC codes can be made when submitting the confirmation statement.

There are now 2 separate forms for completing a confirmation statement. The Confirmation Statement CS01 should be used if your confirmation date is 4 March 2024 or earlier, to confirm that the company's details are up to date. Confirmation Statement form CS01 (new version) should be used if your confirmation date is 5 March 2024 or later, to confirm that the company's details are up to date. Existing companies will need to give a registered email address when they file their next confirmation statement with a statement date from 5 March 2024. 

It currently costs £13 to file your confirmation statement online and £40 if you send Companies House a paper form. These fees are set to increase to £34 and £62 respectively from 1 May 2024.

There are special rules which limit the ability to change your company’s accounting year end date. A company’s year end date is also known as its ‘accounting reference date’ and is historically set by reference to the date the company was incorporated. Under certain circumstances it is possible to make a change to the accounting year end and for some businesses this can have trading and / or tax benefits.

As a general rule, you can only change the year end for the current financial year or the one immediately before it. Making a change to a year end date will also change the deadline for filing accounts (except during a new company’s first financial year).

There is no limit to the number of times you can shorten a year end date but you can only extend the period to a maximum of 18 months once in every five years. The financial year can be extended more often under limited circumstances such as when the company has been put into administration.

A request for a change to an accounting reference date can be made online (preferred and quickest option) using the Companies House online service or by using a postal version of the Change of accounting reference date (AA01) form. No change can be made to a period for which accounts are overdue.

There is no overriding reason for using one date over another but there are a number of factors to take into account. The most common year end dates are usually 31 December (to coincide with the end of the calendar year) or 31 March (to coincide with the end of the tax year).