Contents
- 1. Director & PSC verification
- 2. Registering your firm as an ACSP
- Telling clients what they need to do
- Verification and the wider 2026 workload
- Questions
General information for practice owners, current at the time of writing (July 2026). Figures are as reported by industry sources; rules and deadlines change — check the current position and take your own advice.
Identity verification at Companies House became a legal requirement from 18 November 2025 and is being phased in over roughly twelve months. For practice owners it creates two separate jobs: getting directors and PSCs verified, and deciding how the firm will file on behalf of clients. Both carry real consequences if they are missed.
1. Director & PSC verification
The main obligations are:
- Existing directors & PSCs
- Verify identity, generally by their first confirmation statement and no later than 17 November 2026
- New directors
- Verify before appointment
- How
- Free, ~15 minutes via GOV.UK One Login; you receive a Companies House personal code
- If you don't
- Acting as a director without verifying after the deadline can be a criminal offence — for the individual and the company
2. Registering your firm as an ACSP
If your firm files at Companies House on clients' behalf, you'll need to be a registered Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), which requires supervision for anti-money-laundering purposes. The decision affects how, and whether, the firm can keep making filings for clients, so make it early and deliberately. Firms already supervised for AML will find this more straightforward, but they still need to register.
Telling clients what they need to do
Verification affects all your clients at the same time, and each of them needs to know what to do and by when. A clear, timely note explaining the steps, with an offer to help, strengthens the client relationship. Offered as a packaged service, the help can also be chargeable. Firms that write to clients early will have fewer last-minute queries to deal with near the deadline.
Verification and the wider 2026 workload
Verification and the ACSP regime add administrative work for firms in 2026, on top of MTD for Income Tax and everyday compliance. Together they add to the pressure on firm capacity, which makes freeing up time through better process and outsourcing routine work more valuable. If the growing workload has you weighing your options, you can talk to us in confidence about the future of the firm.
