ECCTA identity verification: what every startup founder needs to know

By Lauren Geary, Senior Manager. 

If you have incorporated a UK company and not yet heard much about ECCTA or its reforms, you are not alone. But that is changing, and the practical consequences are arriving faster than many founders expect. 

Companies House shared with us a candid account of where reform under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) currently stands. The picture that emerged is one of genuine disruption to normal filing behaviour, and startups are not exempt. 

Companies House is no longer just a filing registry 

The strategic shift underway at Companies House matters for founders to understand. Their five-year strategy, published in October 2025, signals a move away from being a passive repository of company information towards being an active gatekeeper – with a tighter grip on who can file on behalf of companies and how. 

For a startup, this means the informal approach many founders have relied on – delegating filing to a trusted colleague, a bookkeeper, or an early-stage adviser without a formal arrangement in place – is becoming harder to sustain. The rules are tightening, and the time to adapt is now. 

The new filing rules: ACSPs and what they mean for you 

The most significant structural change is the introduction of Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs). Shortly, anyone filing on behalf of your company at Companies House will need to be either a registered ACSP or a verified employee of your company. There is no third option. 

In practice, this means: 

• If you file yourself, you will need to complete identity verification as a director.
• If someone else files for you – a co-founder, an operations hire, a virtual assistant – they will need to be a verified employee of your company, or your company will need to engage a registered ACSP.
• If you use an accountant or company secretary, check whether they are themselves verified, or employed by a registered ACSP. Not all are, and the requirement is coming.
• Reviewing your current filing arrangements now, before the mandate arrives, is considerably less painful than scrambling to fix them under deadline pressure. 

Identity verification: the numbers are sobering 

Since the voluntary identity verification window opened in April 2025, Companies House has issued approximately 4.5 million verification codes to individual directors and PSCs. But only 47% of directors have actually included their codes in confirmation statement (CS01) filings. On-time CS01 compliance has dropped to 55%. 

If you are a director of a UK company and have not yet completed identity verification, the chances are that your confirmation statement filing is already affected. This is not a future problem – it is a present one. 

The barriers are practical rather than deliberate. The GOV.UK One Login system has caused difficulties for some users, and directors without biometric passports face particular challenges. These are solvable problems, but they take time to resolve, and the verification process cannot simply be left until the day a filing is due. 

What startup founders specifically need to do 

Verify your identity now. If you are a director or a person with significant control (PSC) of your company and have not yet verified your identity with Companies House, do so immediately. You can do this directly via GOV.UK One Login, or through a registered ACSP if you encounter difficulties or do not have a biometric passport. 

Check your co-founders and other directors. Every director and PSC needs to verify independently. If you have co-founders on the register, each of them is responsible for their own verification. Do not assume it has been handled. 

Review who files on your behalf. Map out every person or service that currently submits filings to Companies House for your company. Confirm whether they are, or will be, a registered ACSP or a verified employee. If they are neither, you need a plan. 

Do not wait for your accountant. Identity verification is a director-level obligation, not an accounting one. Your accountant may be a registered ACSP and may be able to help, but the responsibility for ensuring you are verified sits with you as a director. 

If you are based outside the UK or do not have a biometric passport, the ACSP route is particularly relevant. A registered ACSP can verify your identity without requiring a UK visit or a biometric document. 

What is coming next: accounts filing from April 2028 

Identity verification is not the only ECCTA reform on the horizon. From April 2028, the way all companies file their annual accounts with Companies House will change. The paper-based and web-filing routes will close for accounts, and all companies will need to file using commercial software in iXBRL format. 

For startups, this is not an immediate concern, but it is worth being aware of now. If your accountant currently files your accounts directly through the Companies House web portal, that option will not be available indefinitely. A conversation with your accountant about their plans for iXBRL compliance is sensible sooner rather than later. 

In June 2026, Companies House announced that all UK registered companies will be required to file their accounts in iXBRL format from April 2028. This applies regardless of whether accounts are filed directly by the company or through a third-party agent or accountant.  

The practical read for founders 

ECCTA reform is not a compliance exercise that can be parked until it becomes urgent. Identity verification is live now, it is affecting filing behaviour across the board, and the structural changes to who can file on behalf of your company are coming. The founders who will find this least disruptive are those who address it early by verifying their own identity, checking their directors and PSCs, and confirming that their filing arrangements are fit for purpose under the new rules. 

If any of this raises questions about your company's position, Law Debenture can help. We are a registered ACSP and provide identity verification for UK directors, PSCs, and LLP members across more than 120 jurisdictions – with no requirement to be physically present in the UK. We also provide company secretarial and legal entity management services for businesses at every stage, from incorporation through to scale. 

Get in touch - contact Lauren Geary at lauren.geary@lawdeb.com or visit lawdebenture.com to find out how we can support your company's ECCTA compliance.