TNAG-2378-FCO40-3457-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-Nationality-(Hong-Kong)-Act-19-1991 — Page 30

Flat Management and Similar Companies

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Flat Management and Similar Companies

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ARE THERE ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS TO BE FILED?

The Annual Return

Every year, the company must send an annual return to the Registrar of Companies. The date of the return must be within 12 months after the date of the

previous return or in the case of a new company, within 12 months of the date of incorporation.

The annual return must be delivered to the Registrar of Companies within 28 days after the date to which it is made up, together with the filing fee. The Registrar will send a form of return to the Registered Office of the company shortly before it is due to be filed.

Accounts

The directors of the company must have accounts prepared and lay them before the members in general meeting within 10 months after the end of the period covered by the accounts. (If the company has passed an elective resolution not to lay the accounts before the members in general meeting, they must still be prepared and delivered to the members). These accounts must comply with a number of statutory requirements and must usually be audited by a qualified accountant. They must also be delivered to the Registrar within the same 10 month period. Delivery of the accounts to the Registrar after the 10 month period will result in a late filing penalty of up to £1,000 being imposed on the

company.

A period of 'months' after a given date ends on the

corresponding date in the appropriate month or, where

there is no corresponding date, the last day of that

month.

Thus a private company whose accounting reference date is 30 September has until 30 July of the

following year to deliver its accounts, not 31 July.

If your company has just a few bills, perhaps for repairs or maintenance, think about whether these

need be handled by the company itself. Some less

formal arrangement may be satisfactory, and the company itself might become "dormant". In that case accounts will still have to be prepared, presented to

the members and delivered to the Registrar, but all

that would be required would be a simple balance sheet, and it would not have to be audited.

A more detailed guide, which includes specimen

resolution and accounts for dormant companies is

available in a separate booklet - (CHN21).

Even if it is not dormant, your company will almost

certainly be small in terms of the Companies Act. This will mean that you could deliver just an abbreviated balance sheet with notes, but it must still be prepared and audited by a qualified accountant and full accounts

must be presented to the members.

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