New Rules for Limited Companies: What You Need to Know!

UK Company law for limited company owners. If you're a doctor or healthcare professional and you run your business through a limited company, this is really quite critical and you need to know if you're planning to start one, if you're planning to register one, you still need to understand this. There are some changes from Companies House and I thought I'll share them with you this morning so you can make a quick decision and know what to do. Now, if you're already using one, you're considering one. And don't worry, don't get stressed out. The most important thing is to understand what the changes are is due to changes in the law that was implemented that is about to start to be implemented by hmrc. These laws were made towards the end of last year, just in case you missed the Mention now newsletter. Now, those laws could shake up the way you operate your limited company. But don't worry, we're going to guide you through it all. We're going to explain these things and over the coming weeks, as we chat with our experts, as we discuss with them, we'll be unpacking it in our email newsletter and also as much as possible through the news, through the email YouTube channel. Sorry. Now, in case you're new to the channel and you you're not sure what's going on here. Well, I'm Dr. Andre Grim. I'm the founder of Moneywise Doctor.com Moneywise Doctor is on a mission to empower doctors and healthcare professionals to make smarter financial decisions and steer clear of costly mistakes. So our blogs, our email newsletters, our YouTube channel, our podcast is all get towards that same one thing to help you, as a doctor healthcare professional, make the best financial decisions to help you to secure your financial future. Now, let's dive right into the latest news from Companies House and how it could affect your business. Whether you run a limited company for your doom or for your brand or whatever you do, this is quite important, right? So starting from next week, and by next week I mean March 4, 2024, HMRC is implementing some new rules. So Her Majesty's Royal Revenue Commission, the tax persons or the tax teams, they're going to be implementing some new rules to ensure, according to them, that companies are transparent and accountable. Well, that's all well and good. My main concern, our main concern here is how does that affect you as a small business owner, as a doctor, a healthcare professional who runs a limited company? Whether for your locums or whatever you do, I will explain the new rules and I'll offer some tips on how I think we might be able to navigate these things. But first, let's state what's on the horizon. There are three key changes coming that you need to be aware of. Three key changes. I'll break them all down. First I'll list the changes and then we can discuss them one by one, what they might mean for you and what to do about it. So here goes. Number one, there are new rules for registered office addresses. So that's number. That's number one, new rules for registered office addresses. Number two, requirements for all companies to supply a registered email address. That sounds easy enough, but let's look at number three, new lawful purpose statement. So, 1, 2, 3. So there are new rules for registered office addresses. Companies are going to need to put in an official email address and of course as well, lawful statement of lawful purpose of business. Now let's look at the first one. So the new rules for registered office addresses is basically saying that from 3-4-2024, your company must have a genuine address assist registered address. So say goodbye to PO Box. If you're previously using a PO Box or you're intending to use a PO Box as the address, now you need to use a real physical address where someone could actually pick up emails. Now, you need to ensure that your address meets these requirements to avoid any issues or hiccups. It's quite important because I suspect obviously HMR should be sending important letter correspondence. I get one every now and then from hmrc. Now, number two is a requirement for a registered email address for every company. So your business has got to now have a registered email address. If you haven't got one, it's easy enough to open one, but you need to provide HMRC with a registered email address. So that should be provided to the company's house, which actually deals with these things. While the email address thankfully won't be public, but to be used for official communication, existing companies must update their own by the next confirmation statement. That's after the 5th of March 2024. So if you're already an existing company and you haven't filed your confirmation statement for the year, this is something you're going to have to update by the time you're filing next time. And the third one, quite important, this might be something to look at with your accountant or solicitor, is statement of lawful purpose. So when establishing a company, shareholders must confirm that it's for a lawful purpose and of course it's for a lawful purpose. But plus you must ensure that your company's future activities are all above board. So nothing dodgy, nothing questionable. Now skipping any of these rules could actually create some real headache in the future. It could create you could land you in hot water. And if you've had to deal with Companies House or hmrc, you want to stay on their right side. You don't want to mess about with them. Why? You want to understand the tax laws. You want to understand how it can be used to your best advantage. You don't want to mess around with them. Don't worry, don't get anxious. It might feel a bit overwhelming, but there's many ways we can help support you understand these things. We're going to be keeping informed that we're going to be sharing these updates here. I also encourage you to stay informed. Keep an eye on out for updates from reliable sources like HMRC and Companies House websites. I'm going to put a link to their website in the bio so check it out. If you check it out in the show notes. The other things you could do seek expert advice. So consider consulting accountants or legalized part or tax professional for guidance if you need to. For most of us you might not need to make any straight away changes apart from updating your email address and then but for those forming new companies, you want some help from someone who knows what they're doing. And the third thing is you subscribe for updates so you can sign up to our email newsletter to get regular updates. Our tenor tips for businesses are run by doctors and healthcare professionals, especially if you run a locum with a limited company or anything close to that. So we're going to be sending updates through our email newsletter and as much as possible we'll also be putting out videos like this. So remember, staying in front today can save you a lot of headache tomorrow. Tomorrow can save you a lot of issues with the tax people. So if you have any questions or concerns or you wanted to ask something specific, don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to guide you through these changes. You can put in your comments below on the YouTube video and yeah, we'll do our best to answer it. So there'll be more updates obviously coming and expert discussions along this line. This will help to sort of like unpack this a bit more because I'm sure that HMS will be releasing some more information. Your company's house website as well be publishing some more info. So stay tuned for invaluable insights. And if you haven't already hit that subscribe button. What are you waiting for? You need to hit the subscribe button to moneywise doctor to stay in the loop with the latest news and tips for you as a doctor, healthcare professional, running a business with a limited company or just wanting to learn a bit more about how you can make the best of your money and steer clear of financial issues. Right, so I'm going to put all the links in the show description notes and don't forget, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Now if you look somewhere up there, can't tell where exactly, you're going to see the link to our other video, which you will find very useful as well, relating to how you can take charge of your money as a doctor. Well, I hope you find it useful. All the best. Bye bye.