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Mandatory Company Trading Disclosures
From 1 October 2008, new rules are in place to unify and replace the various regulations setting out the trading disclosures that incorporated companies must make to show their legal identity. This is now being monitored by Trading Standards and can result in a £5000 fine.
You display your company name on business letters, notices, official publications, and websites.
You must also display your company's registered number and the address of its registered office on your electronic and paper documents, including emails, invoices, receipts, order forms and websites. You do not have to do so on every page of your website, but must place this information so that it can be easily found and read.
You must also respond within five days to enquiries from any person you deal with in the course of business who requests in writing:
- the address of your registered office or any other place where that person can inspect company records
- the type of company records you keep at these locations
If the name of any of a company's directors appears in a letter - other than in the text or as a signatory - you must then include the names of all directors in that letter.
You must display the company's registered name at its registered office and inspection place(s), and any other location at which you carry on business. The signs must be in a prominent position so visitors can easily read them. Companies may be exempt from this requirement where:
- they have never traded - ie they have been dormant since incorporation
- the location is primarily a domestic location provided the premises is not the company's registered office or a location for inspection of its records
