On 1 October 2009, further elements of the Companies Act 2006 came into effect which will be of interest to charitable companies and their trading subsidiaries.  The changes are as follows:

1)       The company name and number needs to be included either in the trustees/directors report, the audit report or the balance sheet.

2)       Accounts must only be signed in black ink.

Accounts that do not comply with these new requirements are likely to be rejected by Companies House.

The act also brings in the introduction of a service address for directors.  Service addresses (for example the Charity’s head office) will be publicly available, but a director’s residential address (currently in the public domain unless a ‘Confidentiality Order’ is in place) becomes only available public authorities and credit reference agencies.

On 1 October, any residential addresses currently held by Companies house will automatically become the director’s service address.  In order to take advantage of this change, charities will need to inform Companies House of the new address.

Louise Giles is a charities expert and a manager at Mercer & Hole.  If you would like to discuss the contents of this post with Louise you can call her on 01727 869141. 

We will be blogging on SME Plus Blog and Tax Plus Blog on Pre-Budget Report day.  If you do not already subscribe to our blogs click here for SME Plus Blog or here for Tax Plus Blog to ensure you get our comment and analysis as and when it happens. 

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On 1 February 2009, further elements of the Companies Act 2006 regarding filing deadlines and late filing penalties came into effect which will be of interest to charitable companies and their trading subsidiaries. The changes are as follows:

1)       For private limited companies, including all Charitable companies the

deadline for filing accounts at Companies House has been reduced to nine months from ten months for all accounting periods beginning on or after 6^th April 2008. 

2)       The new filing penalties apply to all accounts that have been delivered late and are as follows:

Not more than one month                                               £150

More than one month but less than three months             £375

More than three months but less than six months             £750

More than six months                                                     £1,500

Please note that where a company fails to meet the deadline for a second year after the year ending 5 April 2009, the penalty will be double to that shown above.

Louise Giles is a charities expert and a manager at Mercer & Hole.  If you would like to discuss the contents of this post with Louise you can call her on 01727 869141. 

We will be blogging on SME Plus Blog and Tax Plus Blog on Pre-Budget Report day.  If you do not already subscribe to our blogs click here for SME Plus Blog or here for Tax Plus Blog to ensure you get our comment and analysis as and when it happens. 

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We have had several queries from clients who wish to benefit from some of the changes made under the Companies Act 2006 - a common one being the removal of the need to hold an Annual General Meeting.

The bad news is that unfortunately the majority of companies are still formed under the 1985 Companies and might not find this to be so simple in practice. This is largely because the Articles of Association of these companies refer to the 1985 'Table A' which sets out how the company should conduct itself.

In these cases the company will need to amend their Articles of Association to benefit from the changes introduced under the Companies Act 2006. This will entail either amending the current articles or adopting new articles of association, (which might be easier and probably cheaper.) These would need to be filed at Companies House with a written resolution. If you opted for new articles of association these would need to be drafted by your solicitor or specialised Company Secretary until the new 2006 model articles are available for adoption which is scheduled for October 2009.

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The staged introduction of Companies Act 2006, has already made interesting reading. It appears as though the ASB are taking a more ‘practical’ view on company statute and are making some impressive ‘common-sense’ amendments to an outdated CA85.

The next stage, is anticipated to be rolled out for implementation from 6th April 2008. The major developments worthy of mention are

• Private companys are no longer required to have company secretaries.
  
  
• There is a shorter filing period as mentioned in a previous blog (private companies have 9 months).
  
  
• There are no longer any medium sized group exemptions (ie all non-small groups will need to consolidate).
  
  
• The turnover exemption for medium sized companies has also been abolished.
  
  Watch this space for more updates and news, alternatively contact us directly…
  
  Related Links
  
  BERR:
  http://www.berr.gov.uk/bbf/co-act-2006/index.html
  ICAEW:
  http://www.icaew.com/index.cfm?route=145195
  

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