From 6 April 2016 Companies must keep a register of individuals or legal entities that have control over them. This is in addition to keeping other information, such as a register of members and a register of directors.
From 30 June 2016 onwards Companies will have to deliver this information annually to the central public register at Companies House when making a Confirmation Statement. Also, those seeking to incorporate a new company will have to send a statement of initial significant control to Companies House, alongside the other documents required for an application to incorporate.
The aim of this new legislation is to increase transparency about the ownership of UK companies so as to tackle tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing as well as to increase trust in UK corporates more generally.
This may impact your company’s systems and processes.
If Drummond Laurie are currently engaged to submit your company Annual Return and deal with any other company secretarial matters, then this briefing is for information purposes only as we will deal with the submission of the Confirmation Statement for you.
Who are PSCs?
For most companies these will be people who:
- hold more than 25% of a company’s shares
- hold more than 25% of a company’s voting rights
- have the right to appoint or remove the majority of directors
In summary the changes are as follows;
- From June 2016, the annual return is being replaced. Instead, companies will file a ‘confirmation statement’ at least once a year.
- All companies must keep a register of people with significant control (PSC) from April this year and inform Companies House of who they are in June.
- PSC information will be made public on the Companies House website.
More detailed guidance can be accessed at the following link PSC Guidance
If you have any queries or would like to discuss further please contact either Julie McVicar or Lucy Murray at Drummond Laurie on 01324 441250.