Companies House introduced PROOF scheme to protect your company from corporate identity theft. PROOF stands for PROtected Online Filing. You must opt to join the scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to prevent people to steal your company’s identity for their personal gain. For example, to file a paper form to change your registered office address or appoint themselves as your company directors and removed the existing directors. For this purpose, the limited company forms covered by PROOF scheme are listed below.
| Company form | Purpose of the form |
| AR01 | Annual Return ** |
| AP01 | Appointment of director |
| AP02 | Appointment of corporate director |
| AP03 | Appointment of secretary |
| AP04 | Appointment of corporate secretary |
| CH01 | Change of director’s details |
| CH02 | Change of corporate director’s details |
| CH03 | Change of secretary’s details |
| CH04 | Change of corporate secretary’s details |
| TM01 | Termination of appointment of director |
| TM02 | Termination of appointment of secretary |
| AD01 | Change of registered office address |
** the annual return form has now been replaced with the confirmation statement. The confirmation statement form was introduced in June 2016.
Once you join the PROOF scheme, you could submit the above company forms online. You would require your company’s authentication code. For this reason, only give your authentication code to people has the responsibility to notify Companies House of changes to your company.
On the other hand, you can also opt-out of the PROOF scheme at any time. Sometimes, it can be a hassle if you continue to file limited company forms covered by PROOF on papers because you would have to submit a consent form for each paper filing while you are in the PROOF scheme.
If you have any questions about joining the PROOF scheme, contact companies house.
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