Accounting updates: June 2019

摘要

The government is planning major changes to the Companies House working model and approach which, if implemented in full, would amount to the most significant reform of the UK’s company registration framework in over 100 years. The reforms would see a complete overhaul of the register, the most ambitious since a register was first introduced in 1844, going to the core of the Companies Act 2006. The aim of the wide-ranging proposals, set out in detail in an 80-page consultation document, is to limit the risk of fraud and misuse of information, by widening the information companies are required to disclose, increasing the checks on this information, and introducing measures to improve the exchange of intelligence between Companies House, HMRC and UK law enforcement bodies. Impending accounting standards changes to IFRIC 14 and the limit on defined benefit asset rules could hit FTSE 100 pension schemes by up to £100bn, double previous predictions, warns LCP. Over the past year alone companies have paid out seven times as much in shareholder dividends as pension contributions, according to analysis by pensions advisory firm LCP. IAS 19 limits the amount of a surplus arising from a defined benefit plan that an entity can recognise as an asset, while IFRIC 14 clarifies how an entity applies those requirements. To protect pension plan participants, employers are required to make minimum funding payments for their pension or other employee benefit plans.