Does the confirmation statement due date update whenever you make a new filing?

Confirmation Statement (New Annual Return)
1

Hi,

I just want to confirm that the confirmation statement will act like the annual return. That is, once you file a confirmation statement, the due date for the next confirmation statement is 1 year and 28 days from the latest filing that was accepted?

Eg.

  • 01/01/2017 first confirmation statement filed (fee paid) and new due date = 29/01/2018
  • 01/06/2017 another confirmation statement filed (free) and new due date = 29/06/2018
2

Hi Jared,

I will get back to you on this soon.

SDN

3

Jared, the general principals are as follows:-

• The 1st confirmation period in relation to a new incorporation begins on the day of incorporation and ends on the confirmation date or after a period of 12 months from the date of incorporation.

• The 1st confirmation period in relation to an existing company begins the day after the MUD of the last annual return filed prior to 30th June 2016 and ends on the confirmation date or after a period of 12 months from the day after the MUD.

• All subsequent confirmation periods will start on the day after the last confirmation statement has been made and last a period of 12 months or until the next confirmation is made if filed early.

• A confirmation statement can be made at any time within a 12 month period, which will re-set the new confirmation period to start from the day after the confirmation is made.

• The annual payment period will commence in parallel with the 1st confirmation period but will be a fixed date every year.

• The annual payment covers all filings starting on the fixed payment date and ending after 12 months from that date, i.e. the day before the anniversary of the annual payment start date, regardless of when in the 12 month period the payment is taken.

• The annual payment will be taken with the first confirmation statement filed with a date within a period requiring payment, whether this is a current or historic period.

Does this help please?

SDN

4

Hi Simon,

That really helps, thanks.

Two questions:

  • Regarding new incorporations - just to confirm that their first 12 months of confirmation statement filings are included in the incorporation fee? So they can file without charge during the first 12 months and only pay for their new confirmation period 12 months after incorporation?
  • The annual payment period is concerned only with the filing dates, regardless of the MUD? - just want to explicitly confirm this with an example:
  • Incorporation = 30 June 2016
  • Annual payment period covers 30 June 2016 to 29 June 2017?
  • User files Confirmation Statement on 15 July 2017 with MUD: 28 June 2017
  • This will incur a charge because of the filing date, regardless of the fact that the MUD is inside the annual payment period?
5

One more thing:

  • When software vendors submit a confirmation statement, will you notify us as to whether we have been charged (on a per submission basis)? Or put another way: how can we know what the annual payment period is (I’m thinking of a scenario where a user may file their first confirmation statement directly with CH and then later file with us)?
6

On your second point, how do you know when to pay, there is a payment period schema to know whether to pay or not.

On your first point I will ask our policy team to clarify.

7

Policy reply:
The fee charged on incorporation covers the cost of the incorporation process itself, it is the “first instalment” of the annual fee. A the fee associated with a confirmation statement covers the review period that the statement is made for (unless another payment has already been made for this payment period). The way this works is that the company will pay a fee alongside the first confirmation statement they file in a payment period, they are then not required to file another confirmation statement until 1 year later. However, if they choose to file another confirmation statement in the same payment period then they will not need to pay another fee.

With regards to a newly incorporated company, a confirmation statement will not need to be filed until 1 year after the company has been incorporated but if they choose to file a confirmation statement before this then they will be charged a fee.

8

About the payment period XML:

  1. How will the PaymentPeriod for new companies be? Empty or set to the incorporation date?
  2. Will every PaymentPeriod request return the next 5 periods? Or will the past periods be available as well?
  3. Will the response ever be empty? (given that minoccurrences = 0)

Thanks

EDIT:

  1. Given a company where the last paid payment period is in the past (eg: period ended 3 months ago), when this company files the confirmation statement now they will pay for it, will the date range of the current payment period continue from the last paid period or will the payment period range start from now + 12mo?

4a) If the answer for the previous question is that the current period will continue from the last one (given that the payment period is always fixed). What happens if the company doesn’t file the confirmation statement for 1 whole year, once they do file and pay for it they will be paying the filing for the previous year, but since that period is in the past they can’t file for it anymore, so they would effectively to pay for 2 years?

  1. A company is incorporated on the 30th June 2016. Their paid payment period will be Start: 30 June 2016, End: (30 June 2016 + 12 months). If they decide to file a confirmation statement on 30 July 2016, they will have to pay for it, what will be then the response in the PaymentPeriod XML? Will the payment period be updated to start on July? Will the customer have 2 paid periods that overlap?
9
  1. How will the PaymentPeriod for new companies be? Empty or set to the incorporation date?
    Payment periods will be generated on incorporation and will be set to start from the date of incorporation.
  2. Will every PaymentPeriod request return the next 5 periods? Or will the past periods be available as well?

Yes and will show the paid periods, flagged, an example below:
Example response:

<PaymentPeriod>
    <StartDate>2019-07-11</StartDate>
    <EndDate>2020-07-10</EndDate>
    <PeriodPaid>false</PeriodPaid>
</PaymentPeriod>
<PaymentPeriod>
    <StartDate>2018-07-11</StartDate>
    <EndDate>2019-07-10</EndDate>
    <PeriodPaid>false</PeriodPaid>
</PaymentPeriod>
<PaymentPeriod>
    <StartDate>2017-07-11</StartDate>
    <EndDate>2018-07-10</EndDate>
    <PeriodPaid>false</PeriodPaid>
</PaymentPeriod>
<PaymentPeriod>
    <StartDate>2016-07-11</StartDate>
    <EndDate>2017-07-10</EndDate>
    <PeriodPaid>false</PeriodPaid>
</PaymentPeriod>
<PaymentPeriod>
    <StartDate>2015-07-11</StartDate>
    <EndDate>2016-07-10</EndDate>
    <PeriodPaid>false</PeriodPaid>
</PaymentPeriod>
  1. Will the response ever be empty? (given that minoccurrences = 0)
    The response should not be empty for a live company as the periods are generated on incorporation.

I will get answers on your extra questions shortly

10
  1. Given a company where the last paid payment period is in the past (eg: period ended 3 months ago), when this company files the confirmation statement now they will pay for it, will the date range of the current payment period continue from the last paid period or will the payment period range start from now + 12mo?

The annual payment will cover the same period every year, so the dates will remain the same no matter when you file the confirmation statement and make your payment.

4a) If the answer for the previous question is that the current period will continue from the last one (given that the payment period is always fixed). What happens if the company doesn’t file the confirmation statement for 1 whole year, once they do file and pay for it they will be paying the filing for the previous year, but since that period is in the past they can’t file for it anymore, so they would effectively to pay for 2 years?

The annual payment can only be taken for the period in which the confirmation statement is made. So only one payment would be taken, for the period in which the confirmation statement date falls. If the confirmation date falls into the next period then there will be a gap in the filing history for the confirmation statement for the last period and a missed annual payment.

However, as with the annual return, you can file the confirmation statement for the correct ‘expected date’ outside of the period and make your annual payment to avoid this.

  1. A company is incorporated on the 30th June 2016. Their paid payment period will be Start: 30 June 2016, End: (30 June 2016 + 12 months). If they decide to file a confirmation statement on 30 July 2016, they will have to pay for it, what will be then the response in the PaymentPeriod XML? Will the payment period be updated to start on July? Will the customer have 2 paid periods that overlap?

The payment would be requested on 30/07/16 when the confirmation statement is filed.

The payment period in the XML will show the period for 30/06/16 to 29/06/17 as paid. The next 5 payment periods will be shown as unpaid.

The next payment will be requested with the first confirmation statement made on or after 30/06/17.

11

Thanks for your answers @chirst

Still on the question 3. Will the response ever be empty? (given that minoccurrences = 0)
What about existing companies? What will the payment period be like in the first request (since it will only be set in the first confirmation statement – which has not been done yet).

12

Work is currently underway to pick up existing companies, currently filing annual returns, and new incorporations registered in the run up to 30/06/16 to ensure that the first 3 periods are generated and in place for 30/06/16. From the 30/06/16 the application will begin to generate those dates automatically.

13

@snicholas
Filed’ in this context means accepted? Or just submitted?
Will a payment happen if the Confirmation Statement is not accepted or returns an error?
Is there an indication in the response that a payment has been taken?

thanks

14

In this instance, the payment is taken once the submission is accepted.

There is no indication in the response that a payment has been taken, but the relevant data read will return a payment history.

SDN

15

Hi there,

You said: A the fee associated with a confirmation statement covers the review period that the statement is made for (unless another payment has already been made for this payment period).

How will this work out if the period is relative to 2+ years? Once you pay, the payment will make which of the 2 years PaymentPeriod true?

Eg: Your last made up to date is 01/01/2014. You file on 05/01/2017 with MUD of 31/12/2016.
What will be the PaymentPeriod status of the following periods 01/01/2014 > 31/01/2014, 01/01/2015 > 31/12/2015 and 01/01/2016 > 31/12/2016?

thanks

16

I will clarify this and respond back as soon as possible.

Thanks
SDN

17

Clarification as promised:

The payment period starts either on the day of incorporation; the day after the made up date of the last annual return filed or where an annual return has not been filed the day after the date annual return should have been made.

So in the example given where the made up date of the annual return is 01/01/2014 the first payment period will be 02/01/2016 > 01/01/17. The date of the confirmation statement will be 01/01/17 and if filed prior to that date will require a fee. So if that confirmation statement is not filed both the statement date and review period with move on a year.

The outstanding annual returns will continue to be due and attract a fee with each filing as the confirmation statement does not apply prior to 30/06/2016.

SDN