Companies House Annual Return – why it could harm your business

Companies House are clamping down hard on the late filing of the annual return form. This is an annual form which updates Companies House about directors and shareholders and comes with an on-line filing fee of £14.

If the form is filed three months late Companies House will issue a first gazette notice ‘GAZ1’ which is an application to strike the company off the register. When the annual return is actually a second notice is filed to remove the striking off application ‘DISS40’.

The problem arises when credit searches are then carried out on the company as they focus on the GAZ1 notice and in most cases will issue a very negative credit score, usually suggesting credit should not be offered to this company.

This can cause problems with banking , customer and supplier relationships. We have witnessed company’s who have had credit lines withdrawn by major suppliers, moving them on to cash only accounts or reducing the credit limits significantly.