Companies House has published a blog post on its approach to introducing software-only filing of annual accounts under new powers proposed in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (ECCT Bill).
The ECCT Bill, which is currently at the committee stage in the House of Lords, will result in the biggest change in the role of Companies House since it was created, turning it from a largely passive recipient of information to a much more active gatekeeper. More information on the ECCT Bill and an easy reference snapshot of the Companies House reform proposals based on the September 2022 draft of the ECCT Bill can be found in our blog post here.
The ECCT Bill will, amongst other things, give Companies House the power to require companies to use software programmes to electronically file their accounts.
Companies House says that, once the ECCT Bill becomes law, it will announce its timetable for the roll-out of software-only accounts filing. In the meantime it has already begun work on the transition, which will see the removal of all other routes for filing accounts.
It is therefore encouraging companies that currently file their annual accounts in paper format or via web-based services such as WebFiling to change to software filing before it becomes a legal requirement.
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