The most common of these is the Companies House Annual Return. This must be filed annually by every single company in the UK, including those that are dormant. Usually it is a simple matter of confirming that the information on the shuttle return is correct and signing it off, but larger companies with constantly changing directors and shareholders may have to do a bit more work on them.

You are also obliged to register with the Information Commissioner if you deal with members of the public and store personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card details or bank accounts. Fortunately this is a one-off requirement but you do have to keep them informed of any changes to your record such as the data controller and the type of information kept.

From time to time you may receive forms from the Office of National Statistics requesting information about your trading activities. These are used for compiling data about the UK economy and participating companies are generally selected at random. You may well feel that your company is nowhere near big enough to be relevant for such returns but you are legally obliged to send them back so it is best to make sure that someone is responsible for them.

The most time-consuming returns are usually those required by supervisory bodies. For example, all insurance companies must submit detailed returns to the Financial Services Authority each year disclosing their solvency margins, and most tour operators have to apply for an ATOL license and lodge annual returns with the Civil Aviation Authority. It is important to ensure that your systems can provide the necessary information for these returns to be completed.

At Acumen we can either prepare these returns for you or train your staff to do them. Please give us a call if you would like any help with your regulatory returns.