The Registrar-General’s Department has warned that all companies that fail to file their annual or nil returns for 2015, 2016 and 2017 before Monday, April 30, 2018 will be slapped with penalties.
Failure to adhere to this directive after the deadline would attract a roll-over of penalty for the previous year of GH₵300 in addition to the current penalty of GH₵50, making it GH₵350, as well as the statutory fees which companies and partnerships are required to pay.
A statement signed by the Registrar-General, Mrs Jemima M. Oware, explained that the department heeded to the plea of the business community, and has, per section 122 (7) of the Companies Act, 1963 Act 179, staggered the penalty payment to a flat penalty yearly rate instead of the daily rate of GH₵300 from Wednesday, February 1, 2017.
“We wish to reiterate that the filing of annual returns is mandatory as stated in Section 122 (1 & 2) of the Companies Act, 1963, (Act 179), ‘that a company shall file its Annual Returns 18 months after incorporation and once, at least, in every year thereafter’.
“Under section 6 (1) of the Incorporated Private Partnerships Act, 1962, once every year, the partners shall deliver to the Registrar of Companies a statement in the Prescribed Form renewing the registration”, she said.
According to her, as a result of their earlier threats, many more companies complied with its directive and have duly filed their annual returns, which is mandatory as stipulated in the Companies Act.
However, she stated that a lot more businesses, companies and partnerships have not as yet filed their annual returns, as well as updated their records into our current electronic database, e-Registrar.
Mrs Oware charged sole proprietors to note that failure to renew their business names would render the business name inactive in our database from January 2, 2018.
“When this happens, sole proprietors/business names would not be able to make any changes or update any records on their business names in that inactive state.
“In order to be restored into our electronic database, sole proprietors/business names would have to pay for the number of years they have not renewed up to date”.
Some complied by filing their annual returns and re-registered their businesses, but with those that have not as yet filed their returns and re-registered into the new e-Registrar database, the department is considering them as not doing any serious business, and will begin the process of striking their names out the register of businesses after the April 30, 2018 deadline”, she stated.
The Registrar-General’s Department’s main objective of issuing these statements for companies, partnerships and businesses are to ensure compliance of the Companies Act 179 and not to punish businesses.
All businesses that wish to be in good standing on our register for business purposes should make every effort to comply timeously with these directives.
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