Proposed changes at Companies House
The government have announced plans that they are to update Companies House procedures. If the changes are put in place, it will look to increase the transparency of UK corporate entities, in order to support efforts to clamp down on fraud and prevent UK companies from being misused for international money laundering purposes. Below we have highlighted the main proposed changes.
Director identity checks
All new and existing company directors, persons with significant control (PSCs) and anyone else filing information on behalf of the company may need to be verified by Companies House. There will be a requirement for each company to have at least one verified person/account in order to make any filings. It is proposed checks will include photo ID and individuals who fail to verify their identity or comply with new requirements under these proposed reforms will be penalised.
No more abridged and ‘filleted’ accounts for small companies and micro-entities
It has been proposed that in order to improve consistency across the board, the option to file abridged and ‘filleted’ accounts will be removed. Instead, small companies and micro-entities will be required to file a single set of accounts. The type of accounts they submit will be based on company size (determined by turnover, gross assets and the number of employees) i.e. whether they are a small company or micro-entity.
Profit & Loss for small companies and micro-entities
With the option to file abridged accounts being removed, the new small company and micro-entity accounts will require a profit and loss report as standard. This will now mean that, alongside the balance sheet and notes to the accounts, the profit and loss report will now be made available to the public.
Directors Report for small companies
A directors report will be mandatorily required for all small companies. However, micro-entities will still be able to take advantage of this exemption. This means that the public will be able to access a summary of business activities, as well as its compliance with accounting standards.
