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02 Sep 2010
One in ten accounts filed to Companies House has been rejected due to basic formatting errors.
The body, which holds records for all businesses across the United Kingdom, has issued plea to businesses to have their accounts in order or risk hefty penalties.
Almost 91,000 accounts were rejected between January and June, of these almost a third due to filing incorrect statutory statements. Accounts for periods before 6 April 2008 require different statements included. Companies House rejected 33,349 accounts on this basis.
Other errors included conflicting duplicate accounts or missing signatures from balance sheets.
If accounts are rejected close to the filing deadline, Companies House issues an automatic late filing penalty of between £150 and £1500 for private companies.
Kathryn Cearns, a member of the ICAEW’s Financial Reporting Committee, said new legislation may have caused some of the errors.
"As we all know, it only takes one technical breach along these lines for a company to incur a fine and put the directors in breach of their duties for filing accounts."
“Undoubtedly, some of this has been caused by the new Companies Act coming in to force, but Companies House has also changed its own rules in some areas, such as names/signatures of directors and where they need to appear,” she said.
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Visitor comments Add your comment
Double Standards
The recently published accounts from Companies House themselves fail pretty much all the standards they impose for the filing of 'glossy' accounts (no pictures, no colour, no shading etc etc).
An amazing case of double standards.
Posted by: Duncan Harper, 03 Sep 2010 | 00:00
THEFT BY COMPANIES HOUSE
The charging of £150 an increase of 50% on last year
acompanied by a shortening of the time limit to file accounts and complex changes in data requirements together with a pedantic approach to legal technicalities was put into operation as a means of raising large sums of money and penalising people out of all proportion to the offense.
If they think this is a good way to retain the goodwill of accountants they are wrong.
I always advise sending in a form on time,making up the figures if necessary or you dont know them rather than risk a penalty.You can always explain away errors in the unlikely event you are caught. You can not so easily escape a late penalty.
What a way we have to live nowdays!!
Posted by: Peter F Smith FCA, 03 Sep 2010 | 00:00
Erroneous Rejections
Does Companies House keep a record of how many accounts they rejected incorrectly? When the CA2006 provisions came in we were faced with many accounts being rejected which were perfectly correct.
Posted by: Simon Young, 03 Sep 2010 | 00:00
Eletcronic filing
I believe that Companies House has a point to make, but should look at their own systems and processes first. They need to look at their electronic filing template and reject basic electronically submitted accounts that do not meet their correct format. But they don't as this is automated and incorrect.
Posted by: David, 03 Sep 2010 | 00:00
ME TOO
I've always subscribed to the "file anything (even the footie results, if they are all you have), as long it is filed on time" and then go back and tidy up later, and recommend it to those around me.
How daft a regime is this, if we all want to have accurate, timely information at Companies House?
Posted by: Sue MAXWELL SMITH, 04 Sep 2010 | 00:00
A Disgrace
The Companies House regime is a complete disgrace. Heavy penalties are demanded in inappropriate circumstances and out of all proportion to the "offence". The Chief Executive refuses to exercise his discretion in a reasonable manner.
Posted by: Charles Bagshaw, 06 Sep 2010 | 00:00
Companies House
Bullshit baffles brains...........always has done. Could it not be moved to Northern Ireland as they seem to be on the ball these days............or make HMRC responsible for it, then the whole jumble would be buried. They are a joke, and not a funny one either.
Posted by: O'Hara, 11 Oct 2010 | 00:00
profiteering
EVERY year our accounts get rejected. Often for what seems a minor amendment as the figures are complete and accurate AND signed correctly.
This year its because the signature on the account differed from the signature on the Directors Report! Each year we get fined - I sometimes think Companies House do this deliberately to make money!!
Posted by: Jan, 03 Feb 2011 | 09:59