CAC Matters

AMAJU THE SPARE PARTS DEALER

Amaju is a businessman known for selling car spare parts. He has been in the business for 18 years now. Early in the business, he met a friend he calls Egi ewe (bookworm) because he is learned. His friend happened to be a CAC accredited agent.

Egi ewe, fondly called by his friend, advised Amaju to register his business as this will show that he is operating his business legitimately. Amaju agreed to this and paid for the registration after which Egi ewe registered Amaju’s business as a Business name and told him that he will have to file annual returns from 18 months after registration and annually onwards.

Egi ewe later got employment at the World Bank and resumed work. Amaju forgot about filing his annual returns and he carried on his business.

Amaju decided to extend his business to liaise with a popular car brand to own a car assembling plant. In the course of their discussion, they asked if his Spare parts business was legitimate and he replied yes and supplied them with his business name.

However, when they searched for the availability of the business, they found out that his business name was not on the C.A.C portal but Amaju argued that he was registered and even showed his C.A.C certificate as a business name. After consulting with C.A.C, they found out that his name has been delisted from the C.A.C portal because he failed to file his annual returns for several years.

Unfortunately, the popular car brand could not conclude negotiations with Amaju because they needed somebody credible. Amaju missed out on this deal because he failed to file his annual returns to C.A.C.

Amaju also had to pay a large sum of money to get his name active on the C.AC portal because of the amount of penalty that has accrued over the years.

WHAT DO ANNUAL RETURNS MEAN?

Perhaps corporate consultants have been talking to you about annual returns, and you’ve been wondering what it means, then here it is. Every registered business name, limited liability company, or non-profit organization must submit an annual monetary payment to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as part of their corporate compliance obligations. Every incorporated trustee, company, or registered business name must follow this legal procedure. It serves as a reminder and proof to the commission that the company, business, or NGO is still in operation and that all the information, including the director, owner, or trustee profiles submitted to the commission at the time of registration, is still current. If anything changes, before making any changes to the management of the company, the address of the firm, or the goals of the company or NGO, the commission anticipates that the registered business will need to file an annual return for the relevant year.

The CAC calendar year for annual returns concludes on June 30 of each year since an annual return is filed throughout the CAC calendar year. The deadline for filing an annual return under a registered business name is 18 months after the company was incorporated. Thereafter, each annual return is anticipated to be submitted during the relevant calendar year, and the annual return is anticipated to be submitted within 42 days of the annual general meeting.

Annual Returns for incorporated trustees, such as foundations, clubs, churches, associations, and organizations, must be filed between June 30 and December 31 of the previous fiscal year. NOTE: Section 862 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 2020. We can see that this is a blatant divergence from the practice permissible for business names and limited liability entities.

BUSINESS NAME CAC ANNUAL RETURNS CALCULATION GUIDELINES

First, you must be aware of the official CAC annual return filing fees for a business name. These payments are N3,000 and N3,000, respectively. Additionally, a business name has an eighteen-month moratorium before it can begin filing annual returns after registration.

The formal cost for submitting annual returns is N5000 for both the incorporated trustee and the limited firm.

penalty for filing annual returns later than expected for a specific year.

A fine is applied if yearly returns are filed after the corporate affairs commission’s calendar year if they are late.

1 Late submission of annual return for small business; fine of $3,000 annually

2 Private company other than small company late filing of annual return: 5,000.00 per year

3 Public firm annual returns that are filed late cost 10,000 each year.

4 Company Limited by Guarantee’s annual return was filed 5,000.00 late.

AN ANNUAL RETURNS FILING REQUIREMENT

You must give the following details to your agent for them to properly file annual returns under your business name: Owners’ full names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and the identity card they used to register their business name, address, and other details are all included.

FILING CAC ANNUAL RETURNS: BENEFITS

A timely filing of CAC annual returns has many advantages for your company, company, or incorporated trustee. A timely filing of CAC annual returns saves your company, business, or registered organization from having to pay a penalty, which can accumulate over time and result in significant costs when you decide to comply.

If you want to keep your business off the list of entities the commission will delist, you must submit your CAC annual returns on time.

The commission can verify that the registered firm or company is still in operation and that all other information provided to the commission is still accurate with the timely filing of annual returns.