AR01 – Complexities with the new Annual Return form

Back in October I had a rant about the Statement of Capital within the IN01 form. It had not occurred to me at the time that there was a similar issue with the new Annual Return form (AR01 form).

There are actually a few issues:

1.  Under the new AR01 form companies are now required for each class of share to state each historic “Amount Paid Up” – this is to include not only the nominal value but also the share premium. Okay, for most companies this is just going to be Ordinary shares at £1. However, there will be a proportion of companies where this is complex and something that may require some analysis and further work. 
2. The second issue I personally experienced is that the software provider Iris were unable to electronically complete and ledge via their software the AR01 when share premium was involved. Therefore it was necessary to hand complete the AR01. In speaking with them they told me to upload the latest release but this did not resolve the problem. They later conceded that they are working on this – lets hope that this bug will be resolved soon.

So the combined cost of the above results in extra time on the time sheet – who pays for this? Can it all be recovered? You may want to pre-empt your clients that the work involved this year is a little more complex. I would be interested to hear about any other negative experiences regarding the AR01? For more information about Company Secretarial matters visit wisteria or wisteriaformations