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Completing a Confirmation Statement
CONFIRMATION STATEMENT. What are they?
All Limited Companies must complete an annual return, now called a Confirmation Statement, once a year to Companies House.
This provides an overview of your company and ensures that all information held on the Register is up to date.
The major change is at the first Confirmation Statement you will need to include the information regarding the people who have significant control of the business. This information is held on a "Personal of Significant Control" (PSC) register. This has been brought in to make the ownership of companies more transparent .
You normally get either a letter or email alert (eReminders) from Companies House reminding you to complete the return.
When are they submitted?
The date of the Confirmation Statement is normally dependent on the date you incorporated the company, it will initially be set 12 months after the incorporation but it can also be the date you last filed your Confirmation Statement.
You have up to 28 days after the due date, this is one of the Directors Responsibilities and you are legally required to file a return.
What happens if you forget?
If you fail to file within the 28 days, the company will be liable for late filing fees (up to £5000) and the company can even be struck off for not completing your Confirmation Statement. Also bear in mind that it is a criminal offence to not complete a Confirmation Statement at all.
You can change to a more memorable date i.e. your tax return date, as long as it's not more than 12 months after the last filing date.
How to complete a Confirmation Statement
If your business hasn’t changed Directors, transferred shares etc. in the year, the Confirmation Statement is relatively easy to complete and will cost £38– which can be paid by credit card or PayPal.
We would recommend completing this online via Webfiling, Companies House are keen to promote the use of their online portal to cut down the amount of paperwork and become more efficient therefore although you can complete the Confirmation Statement by Post, the fee increases.
If you want to file the return using Webfiling and have not yet registered, make sure you give yourself enough time, as you need to complete a registration form and they then post the password to the registered office address.
When completing the Confirmation Statement you will be asked to confirm:
• Company Name and Registration Number• Who the Directors are and their details, such as address (plus company secretary if you have one)
• What your Company does – this is based on the SIC codes – Standard Industrial Classification – you can use up to 4 codes on the return
• The Type of Company – private or public, limited by shares or guarantee
• The Registered Office Address – where your list of shareholders is held
• If you do not keep your company registers at your registered office address, you will need to confirm where they are held – this is known as the SAIL address – Single Alternative Inspection Location.
• Indicate if the company has shares by a “statement of capital”, the number and value.
• Shareholders details
• Where Information on “debentures” are kept
• Whether the company has traded in the last 12 months
Due to recent legislation
You will also be asked to provide an email address - at which you can be contacted - email sent to the address will be treated as if Companies House had posted the correspondence to you, and:
if you didn't complete a declaration during incorporation, you will also be asked to confirm that none of your business activity is illegal.