Limited Company Records

If you trade as a Limited company you are required to keep a whole host of company and accounting records. These include details of directors, shareholders, company secretaries and the results of any shareholder votes and resolutions. Failure to do this could land you in deep water with the authorities and in many cases it is actually illegal not to comply.

The company must also keep a register of people with significant control (PSC register). The PSC register is used to identify and record the people who exert significant control over UK companies often known as beneficial owners. This isn’t always obvious and can include some that don’t hold shares and may not even appear to be a Director. This record must be maintained even if there are no people with significant control.

As far as accounting records are concerned these should be comprehensive and I often see records that fall short of the minimum requirements. Here is the minimum you should be keeping:

• all money received and spent by the company, including grants and payments from coronavirus support schemes
• details of assets owned by the company
• debts the company owes or is owed
• stock the company owns at the end of the financial year
• the records you used to work out the stock figure
• all goods bought and sold
• who you bought and sold them to and from (unless you run a retail business)

All these records must be held for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer if:

• they show a transaction that covers more than one of the company’s accounting periods
• the company has bought something that it expects to last more than 6 years, like equipment or machinery
• you sent your Company Tax Return late
• HMRC has started a compliance check into your Company Tax Return.

If you wish to explore how I can help you maintain the correct records get in touch.