The ECCTA identity verification deadline, and who it applies to

By Christopher Goodchild, Founder, FiledOnTime. Checked against GOV.UK: when you need to verify your identity for Companies House on 7 Sept 2026.

Identity verification at Companies House became compulsory on 18 November 2025 for new incorporations and new appointments, and that date opened a 12 month transition period for people already on the register. An existing director verifies by giving their Companies House personal code as part of the company’s next confirmation statement. Someone who is a PSC as well as a director has a 14 day window starting the day after the company’s confirmation statement date. A PSC who is not a director is the exception that catches people out: their window is the first 14 days of their own birth month, so it has nothing to do with the company’s filing dates at all.

What changed on 18 November 2025

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act requires Companies House to verify the identity of directors, people with significant control, and equivalent officers of other entities in scope. From 18 November 2025 that verification became a compulsory part of incorporating a company and of any new appointment.

That date was not itself a deadline. It opened a 12 month transition period for the people already on the register, which means the transition closes in November 2026. If you look after other people’s companies, that is the date worth having in front of you.

When each person has to verify

Who	Their deadline
An existing director	Gives their Companies House personal code as part of the company’s next confirmation statement.
A director of a company being incorporated now	Provides the personal code as part of the registration filing. There is no grace period.
Someone who is both a director and a PSC	A 14 day window starting the day after the company’s confirmation statement date.
A PSC who is not a director	The first 14 days of their own birth month. Someone born on 22 January has a window of 1 to 14 January.
Someone who became a PSC after 18 November 2025	When they are first added to the register, or within 14 days of being added.

The birth month rule is the one that catches practices out. A PSC who is not also a director has a deadline with no relationship to the company’s accounting reference date, confirmation statement date, or anything else in your filing calendar. It is derived from their date of birth, so every such person on your client list has their own date, and no two need fall in the same month.

How someone actually verifies

There are two routes. An individual can verify directly with Companies House through GOV.UK One Login, which is free and can be done online in a few minutes. Alternatively they can verify through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, which is the route most accountancy practices will use for clients who would rather not do it themselves.

Either way, the output is a Companies House personal code. That code is what gets given on the filing. Verification and filing are separate steps: verifying does not tell Companies House which company the person is attached to, and filing does not verify anybody.

What this means if you look after several companies

The practical difficulty is not understanding the rules, it is that the deadlines are per person rather than per company. One client company with two directors who are also PSCs, plus one PSC who is not a director, has three separate verification deadlines on two completely different bases. Multiply that across a client book and a spreadsheet stops being adequate quite quickly.

To be plain about what we do and do not do: FiledOnTime reads each officer’s verification status from the public register and tells you who is still outstanding. It does not verify anyone’s identity, and it cannot. Verification is done by the individual, through GOV.UK One Login or an authorised provider.

Where this sits

FiledOnTime reads these dates from the Companies House register and reminds you before each one. It does not verify anyone's identity and does not file anything on your behalf. Always confirm a date against the register before acting on it, or before deciding not to.

This guide is general information, not advice for a particular company. If something here does not match what the register says about a company you look after, the register is what counts.