Warning to firms over annual returns

Over 6,000 companies were struck off in the first eight months of this year, according to new figures released today.

The Companies Registration Office (CRO) said 3,414 of the total 6,081 cases were involuntary strike offs and 2,667 were voluntary.

The figures were revealed ahead of the launch of the CRO’s You’ve Got A Date campaign, this Sunday, to remind company directors of the need to file annual returns on time.

“What this shows is that we are unlikely to reach last year’s level of 13,624 strike offs,” registrar of companies, Paul Farrell, said.

“And we are hopeful that this trend will continue downwards as we push to improve compliance rates still further.”

The largest figure for strike offs was in 2003 when a total of 20,319 companies were struck off, 14,836 of them involuntarily.

This removed the vast majority of extinct companies from the register and so 2004 saw a large drop to 6,595.

The Integrated Enforcement Environment (IEE), which provides rigorous tracking of company behaviour and, in particular, repeated late or non-filing of returns, was introduced during 2004.

This led to a rise in the number of companies struck off in 2005 to 13,624 of which 10,308 were involuntary.

“It is important, with the major filing period of September and October just starting, that company directors remember to ensure their returns are filed on time,” explained Mr Farrell.

“With 12,620 new companies being added to the register since January 2006 we can expect a significant number of new company directors as well. So, that is why we are running the campaign again.”

The penalties and sanctions that can be brought against companies and their directors upon being struck off can be severe, including loss of assets and the stripping of the protection of limited liability.

In addition, applications may be made to the High Court to disqualify the company’s directors from acting as director or having any involvement in the management of any company, together with an Order for the legal costs incurred in bringing and investigating such an application.