Today’s Blog concerns a last-minute postponement of a new registration system for accountants at Companies House, the day before it was due to go live. Namely, their much-heralded new system to enable accountants to register with Companies House as an authorised agent on behalf of clients.
What happened on Monday?
Only twenty-four hours before a new system to enable accountancy firms the ability to register as an authorised agent on behalf of a limited company client was due to go live, it has been postponed after Companies House allegedly identified areas that “require final testing”.
Under the original schedule, with effect from Monday 25th February 2025, accountancy firms could apply to become an Authorised Company Service Provider (ACSP) using the new “Apply to register as a Companies House authorised agent” service, available on the government’s new One Login platform.
A Companies House spokesperson released a statement on Monday 24th February that they had “identified areas with our service…. that require final testing, and we are addressing these ahead of launching the service, to make sure it works perfectly for our customers”. The spokesperson added that Companies House will share updates on the updated timeline when the service is ready and apologised for the late notice.
What is ACSP intended to achieve?
At an as-yet-unnamed date, accountants who submit accounts and other information on behalf of clients to Companies House, will need to register their business as an ACSP. These form part of wider plans to reinforce the accuracy of company records on the public register by requiring anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK, to verify their identity to prove they are who they claim to be. It is also intended to be an anti-fraud measure.
When Companies House eventually manage to actually launch the new system, registration will eventually be available through gov.uk One Login, the government’s new single sign-in service, which is planned to replace Government Gateway accounts as a single identity check and login system to access all central government services.
Firms can still register, but not yet!
The original February 25th launch date was intended to provide an opportunity for accountancy firms to register one month in advance of the official launch date of 25th March 2025 and complete identity verification for themselves and their clients ahead of the new service’s compulsory deadline
From 25th March, individuals will be able to voluntarily verify their identity, either directly with Companies House through One Login or via an ACSP. This date is currently unaffected by the delay to ACSP registration, but I strongly suspect that this is likely to change.
“In practical terms, this delay doesn’t matter a jot,” anti-money laundering (AML) expert and founder of MLRO Support Ltd, David Winch said. “The plan has always been that the identification of individuals could be confirmed from Tuesday 25th March; so anyone registering as an ACSP before then cannot perform any functions as an ACSP until that next stage comes in.”.
Whilst I personally pretty much agree with most comments David Winch makes, on this occasion I believe he has been a tad naive on his assumption that the system will still go live on Tuesday 25th March, given that Companies House has to do further testing. The resultant data will need to be evaluated before the green light is given for the launch of the new system. So, can this be done in less than four weeks, given their rather woeful track record, I really don’t think so.
Is the delay down to Companies House incompetence?
Most fair-minded individuals would conclude that if a much-heralded new system is postponed only 24 hours before the official launch date, that this is either down to pure incompetence or there is something lurking in the background, that they’re not telling us.
I am personally at a loss as to why this has happened, especially so, given that all accountancy firms pretty much now have to prove to HMRC that they are members of a professional body and that the individual accountants hold the appropriate professional qualifications. Accountants also must apply the anti-money laundering rules scrupulously or risk being struck of their professional body’s register.
So, is there something they’re not telling us? Given that there has been extensive limited company fraud in recent years, the significant increase of which started during Covid and has accelerated in recent times, especially with umbrella companies. (This is a subject that I’ve visited on a regular basis: See the Blog: Stooge directors cost HMRC £Millions posted on July 20th, 2023).
Personally, I take the view that it’s likely to be incompetence as does VAT expert Jason Croke, who writing in the Times recently, said that the postponement move, was “a green light for the fraudsters to carry on unhindered for at least another six months”.
Accountant’s view
As someone who has been in the ‘tax’ business for many years, I really shouldn’t be surprised by this latest quasi-governmental own-goal. I just hope and pray that it can be sorted within four weeks to put a spanner in the wheel of the fraudsters.
