Ed Note  We have received the following notification from NPT Trading Standards.  It is published as received

 

UK Corporate Portal Scam

Neath Port Talbot Trading Standards are warning local businesses not to respond to a mailshot that could result in a bill of almost £2400 over a period of three years.

Firms are being advised to ignore a letter from a firm with a German address headed “Publication of Companies and VAT Registration Numbers in the UK Corporate Portal 2014”.

The letter claims that due to a change to the “EU Economic Package”, which requires all companies to provide their VAT registration number on various documents since 2010, the “UK Corporate Portal” is also required to update companies’ business data as a “basic entry”.

The letter also 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”. However the small print indicates that a cost of £797 a year will be incurred by the business, for a minimum of three years.

Trading Standards officers are concerned that local businesses may believe the letter to be from an official source and a legal obligation, which is not the case.

Businesses do not have to provide any information to this company and there is no requirement for their details to appear on this website.

However, if any business does complete and return the form they could be obliged to pay the costs of having their details published.

Neath Port Talbot Council Leader Cllr Ali Thomas said “In what is an already challenging trading environment, scams like this are an unwanted and sometimes costly hazard for any business caught unawares”.

“I would urge local businesses to contact our Trading Standards team if they have any suspicions over this type of message”

Information on Trading Standards in Neath Port Talbot can be found online at www.npt.gov.uk/tradingstandards, via Twitter @NPTEHTS or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NptEnvHealthTradingStandards