Annual returns going online

In 2024, the Companies Office of Jamaica, COJ, will be upgrading its online portal to incorporate the filing of annual returns along with the supporting documents.

Presently, the returns have to be filed in person at the Companies Office of Jamaica. The agency operates from its main office in New Kingston and a regional office in Montego Bay.

The platform is expected to minimise the rejection rate of annual return filings, some of which is said to be due to human errors, including incorrect spellings.

The Companies Office platform upgrade will be executed under the Foundation for Competitiveness and Growth Project, a loan programme that’s overseen by the Planning Institute of Jamaica and is funded by the World Bank and the Government of Jamaica.

The cost of the upgrade was not disclosed but it falls under a US$15-million extension of the Competitiveness programme, which was initially a six-year, US$50-million facility.

The extension requested by Jamaica is backed US$10 million by the World Bank and US$5 million by the Jamaican government.

The platform upgrade is expected to last 10 months, starting next February.

“This will result in an improvement in the online filing experience of the customers using the portal and reduction in the rejection rate for annual returns,” the PIOJ said.

A consultant is now being sought for the project.

Annual returns are commonly rejected because of human error, including incorrect names and dates, missing signatures, and incomplete director details.

The web-based application is expected to automate some of those details, effectively minimising the errors, Companies Office said.

The cost for filing of returns varies across profit-making, non-profits and overseas companies, and ranges between $2,000 and $7,000.

Companies Office recently reduced the penalty for late filing from a maximum $10,000 to a flat fee of $2,000, regardless of the number of days outstanding.

The Companies Office is an executive agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

The agency already facilitates online registration of business names and companies.

Those online portals, implemented in 2018 and 2019, were said to have resulted in a significant reduction in the time taken to start a business and saved on transportation costs for customers, who no longer needed to physically visit the offices for such transactions.

In all, there are around 70,000 active companies and upwards of 200,000 businesses captured in the Companies Office database.

The latest data from the agency last week regarding new registrations shows that 3,277 companies were incorporated during January to August 2022, and that 9,943 new business names were added to the registry in the same eight-month period.

It marked a recovery of activity from 2021 when only 943 company formalisations and 4,230 business registrations were recorded for the entire year.

karena.bennett@gleanerjm.com