Companies Act 2006

On 1 October 2009, further elements of the Companies Act 2006 came into effect which will be of interest to charitable companies and their trading subsidiaries.  The changes are as follows:

1)       The company name and number needs to be included either in the trustees/directors report, the audit report or the balance sheet.

2)       Accounts must only be signed in black ink.

Accounts that do not comply with these new requirements are likely to be rejected by Companies House.

The act also brings in the introduction of a service address for directors.  Service addresses (for example the Charity’s head office) will be publicly available, but a director’s residential address (currently in the public domain unless a ‘Confidentiality Order’ is in place) becomes only available public authorities and credit reference agencies.

On 1 October, any residential addresses currently held by Companies house will automatically become the director’s service address.  In order to take advantage of this change, charities will need to inform Companies House of the new address.

Louise Giles is a charities expert and a manager at Mercer & Hole.  If you would like to discuss the contents of this post with Louise you can call her on 01727 869141. 

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