Companies House have recently introduced their ‘e-reminder’ service. With this the government registrar of companies is planning to stop postal notifications.

For many years Companies House has sent reminders to the company’s registered office. The notices include a reminder that the accounts or the Confirmation Statement are due to be filed. There is no legal requirement for these to be sent. However, the notices have acted as a timely reminder for company directors that they need to file documents.

Why are they changing?

Companies House believe that the current ‘opt-in’ e-reminder service has been a success highlighting that those registered for electronic reminders by email are less likely to receive a penalty for late filing of accounts.

Whilst this sounds good on the surface it may be argued that those registering for an email reminding them to file accounts are generally more proactive in scheduling filing dates in the first place.

At present when a company chooses to register for electronic reminders they accept that no further postal notices will be sent. In the future, all reminders will be sent electronically but Companies House have not stated how they will communicate with companies that have not registered an email address.

This planned change is part of Companies House move towards being a digital organisation. You can now file most documents online electronically using the web filing service. This has significantly improved the speed of filing documents and minimised errors on forms. They also recently announced that more company information would be available for electronic download free of charge.

Directors responsibility

It is worth remembering that directors have a duty to file accounts on time. Companies House does not have a duty to remind directors when they are due. If you file your company accounts even 1 day late you will automatically be issued with a penalty. Penalties increase the later you file your accounts.

For help filing your company accounts contact an accountant. If your company is dormant with no trading activities then we can help you to file dormant accounts. Even companies that have not started trading have to file some form of accounts.