Most of our clients complete their annual return online using this simple guide. With the increasing volumes of companies registered at Companies House, it makes sense that any data which is held on the record can be copied from year to year with changes rather than recreating the information every year from scratch and that being updated manually or by Optical Character Recognition at Companies House. The process is fairly straightforward for anyone used to online shopping.
- Go to the webfiling section of Companies House
- Enter your registered email address and security code (if this is the first time you have used the service you will need to complete the “new customer Register” section and the security code will be emailed to you)
- Select whether you are filing for a company or LLP, then enter where the company is registered (probably England & Wales), the company number and the authentication code (if it is the first time you need to add a company and wait for confirmation by post).
- Select the document you want to file, in this case AR, the Annual Return, you will then be taken through a number of screens where you can check and amend details:
- Registered Office
- Location of Company register – this will be the registered office unless these are held elsewhere
- Company Officers – details of the directors and shareholders, due to Companies Act changes you now have to specify the country/state of residence (ie United Kingdom) for directors of the company. You will be prompted by highlighted red text if you have not amended any required fields.
- SIC code – this code (or codes) should represent the activity of the company, there are main categories which are then further subdivided so it should be possible to pick an appropriate one. A new series has been adopted from 1 October 2011 so you will have to reselect. There is a useful SIC Code conversion table Companies House.
- Capital – the number of issued shares in each class and their respective rights must be disclosed. These rights include voting, dividends, what happens on winding up and whether they are redeemable.
- Shareholders – details of full names of shareholders required
- You then just need to make a £13 card payment to complete the exercise.
There are various forms you can complete online including changes of directors addresses and the process is within reach of anyone used to completing online documents. This article is a brief summary of how to complete an Annual Return and may not apply to specific circumstance so please seek professional advice before taking any steps based on the information shown. If you would like advice in this or other areas feel free to call. Alastair Wood, AW Accounting – Accountants who “speak your language”