Companies House

Accountants have used it for a while now.

But because Companies House are taking away the option for you to file directly with Companies House, software companies are now going to give these options here.

I wouldn't be surprised if QuickBooks is going to do the same.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sage is going to do the same, et cetera, et cetera.

opinion? Yeah, I'm not sure.

I'm slightly on the fence on this one.

I think if they are going to open it up to end users, I think they need to put a very big... a warning that they would strongly advise people who do not know the requirements of accounting rules and all the rest of it to take professional advice before filing because you will have serious repercussions from both Companies House and HMRC if what you file is incorrect or misrepresents or is not true and fair and all the rest of it.

So I think it's probably okay, but if they put major warning.

Like what you've just said there is some knowledge that I never knew about.

And why would you? But crucially, why would you give somebody your cash without doing your due diligence? The first thing you should do, go on to Companies House, go on to Google...

Do you know why? I've learned this from a lifetime ago.

A guy at Goldman once said to me, he said to me, if it sounds too good to be true, I guarantee you it is too good to be true.

So you've got to make sure that there's legitimate personnel behind this.

There's a lot of new changes on Companies House recently about making sure that you submit ID as a director, strict rules on directives.

around this is obviously speaking from the uk point of view um but strict rules on like when your address can be disclosed and when it can't be um but we just need to make sure the absolute basics are there in terms of the ownership and everyone's verified because those are the people that we'd be pointed towards if any other bit of information isn't verified or it's incorrect you've got like a full stop against all of those things the corporate structure will need to be looked at so when we talk about corporate structure we mean you'll have say Sheen, when we say Sheen, that isn't just going to be Sheen Limited, or that's the one company, they will have an entity, and then they will have like parent companies, which is what they call if you think about a family tree, and then it goes up and up and up into a group structure, you probably have a holding company.

And it gets so complicated when you think of well, oh, it's just one business.

I mean, quite a few bakers have asked me over the years about whether they set up as a sole trader or whether they set up as a limited company.

Now, what would you say the advantages, disadvantages are of setting yourself up with Companies House and being a limited company rather than just trading as a sole trader?

That's a question I get asked an awful lot.

This day and age, unfortunately, the answer is not what it used to be.

But for most of the people, I think in your audience, they would be worthwhile just staying as a sole trader, in my opinion.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I would agree because, yeah, having looked into limited company and I have a CIC that's registered with Companies House and all the things that have to go on with that are mind blowing.

It's a

Now, I won't become a director of a business until I've got to know it, because I don't want to have a fiduciary responsibility to that business.

So I'm I have to get to know the business before I'm prepared to actually go on the pages of Companies House.

The other side of this is, and I've had this a lot, just because I'm an investor doesn't mean I'm an advisor.

So take my photograph off your deck.

The thing I would say that we are reflecting on a lot in the current climate is we are an environmental research consultancy.

That is, if you go and look on Companies House and look at our Mem and Arts, it's in there.

That's why we were set up, is to have this positive impact.

But I always recall... a business advisor I worked with in my Surrey County Council job, who I'm still in contact with.

It's bollocks.

On Companies House.

It's absolute bollocks [laughs]

Which you've got like 90% fraud on it anyway, with most of the businesses at least, 'cause this is why they wanna do their digital ID thing, which is all a con, but it's a con to get everybody to count to digital ID, um, when they know that majority of them, these businesses, are fraudulently registered and probably a lot of stuff, bad stuff going on behind those as well, as you probably have heard.