We would like to warn businesses about a mailshot that could lead to an annual bill of almost £800 each year, for a period of at least three years.

A number of trading standards organisations, throughout the UK, are advising Companies and businesses to ignore a letter from a German firm headed Publication of Companies and VAT Registration Numbers in the UK Corporate Portal 2013.

The letter claims that due to a change to the “EU Economic Package”,  the “UK Corporate Portal” is also required to update companies’ business data as a “basic entry”.

The letter includes a form for businesses to check and sign to say their details are correct, if they wish their entry to be a “non-basic entry”. But if they do this, the small print indicates a cost of £797 will be incurred by the business, for a minimum of three years.

HMRC have provided an excample of the letter here:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/example-vat-letter.pdf

We are concerned that local businesses may consider the letter to be an official communication.

Businesses should be aware that there is no obligation on them to provide any information to the company and entries do not have to appear on the company’s website or portal.