Companies Act 2006 Changes for 2009

There are some imminent changes that come into force from the Companies Act 2006 that all business owners need to be aware of.

Each private limited company owner in the UK should have received a fold out guide issued by companies house that provides detail of the changes that have already been made and those effective from 1st October 2009. Here are those changes.

Changes to companies act already in force

Some changes have already been made and these are:

• You must be aged 16 years or older to be appointed a director of a company
• Although you can still appoint a company secretary you do not need to any longer
• You do not need to hold an annual general meeting for a private limited company although you can if you wish
• You do not need a court order to make capital reductions as they can be supported by a solvency statement instead
• You do not need to have a unanimous vote for resolutions subject to articles as members may agree in writing to resolutions for private limited companies

Changes to companies act effectives 1st October 2009

The following changes come into force on 1st October 2009 so ensure you know what these mean for your ltd company (private limited companies in the UK)

• You have to file your accounts 1 month earlier than previously – this means filing your accounts 9 months after the date of your year end for accounting periods starting on or after 6th April 2008 – this should not cause any problems because corporation tax has always been taken 9 months after the year end date with the accounts being filed the month afterwards – but bare this in mind because if you are late you will be handed a whopping £1,500 penalty by HMRC
• Changes to articles – any changes to a company’s articles need to be notified to HMRC within 15 days or you’ll be handed a nice £200 fine as this is regarded as a criminal offence and the fine is charged as a civil penalty
• The articles for new companies will include the company’s objectives and liabilities which were previously found in the memorandum of association
• Directors will now have a “service” address as well as their real address. The service address will be a public record whereas the real/ residential address will only be made available to credit reference agencies and public bodies. From 1st October 2009 the current director’s residential address will automatically become the service address and if you want to change that you will be able to do so online
• The company’s registers can now be held at either the current registered office or at a single alternative inspection location which has the acronym SAIL – you may only have one SAIL address per company (as defined by the acronym…) and must notify companies house of any changes made. Forms are available on the companies house website.
• All companies house forms will also change from 1st October for company events that take place on or after this date and if you don’t and forget to include the appropriate fee your form will of course be rejected.
• The PROOF system comes into force (and that stands for the Registrars PROtected Online Filing Scheme which means that members who sign up for it can only files their documents online and any paper forms will be rejected.

Those are the main companies act 2006 changes that come into force so just be aware or contact your accountant if in any doubt.

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