23rd April 2024
The introduction of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) was a significant moment for Companies House. If you are a business owner or hold office as a company director, it is crucial that you are aware of these recent changes to ensure you are compliant.
From the 4th of March 2024, Companies House has greater powers to interrogate, amend and reject the data it holds about companies. Those powers include:
While some measures in the ECCTA will take several years to implement, other changes affect your business now and financial sanctions can be imposed for non-compliance. It’s important to make note of when these changes come into effect so internal business policy and procedure can be updated to fall in line with the ECCTA changes.
All companies need to provide a registered email address to Companies House; this address will be used to communicate with you directly. It is therefore important that any email address given is regularly checked. The registered email address will not be available on the public register.
This obligation applies upon incorporation of a new company. All existing companies registered at Companies House will need to confirm the email address on the filing of their next confirmation statement.
Hopefully, Companies House having a registered email address will mean reminders will not be missed and late filing will be a thing of the past.
This may be an important change for some companies because PO Box addresses are no longer permitted. From 4th March, all registered companies are required to have an ‘appropriate address’ on the register This means the address of a person related to the business who can acknowledge delivery rather than an un-named, or generic PO Box address.
All companies will in future, be unable to file a confirmation statement unless a Director confirms in the statement that all the future activities of the Company will be lawful.
Likewise, when forming a new company a Director will be required to confirm that the company is being incorporated for a lawful purpose. Whilst it goes without saying that this should be the case in any event, this potentially creates liability for those who make such statements either falsely or recklessly.
Companies House has power to levy considerable fines against those who fail to comply with the new requirements and hence these changes cannot be ignored.
Understanding how legislation impacts you and your business can be both difficult and stressful. Myers Solicitors can advise in relation to the practical implications of these legislative changes and what they mean within the context of your business. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the corporate team on 01782 577000 or email info@myerssolicitors.co.uk . Myers & Co Solicitors has offices in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
