What is NAR1? Annual return forms, downloads and samples

NAR1 is an annual return with a particular information date

NAR1 is the annual-return form for local Hong Kong companies. It records company particulars at its made-up date, including registered-office, officer and member information as applicable. A historical return is a dated record: its contents do not automatically establish the company’s position today.

Decide whether you are preparing a return or retrieving an already filed return for a company. Preparation needs the current official form and filing instructions. Retrieval starts with identifying the entity and choosing its dated filing in the document index. The same form name describes two different tasks.

Companies Registry: private-company annual returns ↗Companies Registry: electronic search FAQ ↗

Choose between a blank form, specimen and filed document

The official specified-forms list provides NAR1, its notes, schedules and company-type specimens. Choose the format and schedule there rather than relying on a year in an old search-result filename. An official specimen illustrates completion; its example names are not evidence of a real company’s filings.

For a customer file, background check or historical comparison, neither a blank form nor a specimen substitutes for the selected company’s filed document. Obtain the appropriate image through electronic search and check the entity, return date and supplied pages.

Scroll sideways to see all columns; focus the table and use arrow keys on a keyboard.

Companies Registry: specified forms and completion notes ↗Companies Registry: private-company NAR1 specimen (fictional data) ↗ClariRecord: two-page NAR1 source and extraction sample ↗

Read identity, date and scope before individual fields

Before turning a filing into a single spreadsheet row, check its identity, time and scope. Earlier layouts and identifier labels can differ from the current specimen, so preserve the original labels and source pages.

1. Check company names and identifiers, distinguishing a former CR number from a BRN.
2. Read the made-up date; do not replace it with the download date or filename.
3. Identify the company type before interpreting applicable fields.
4. Keep capital rows and officer or member records distinct, including separate totals.
5. Check main pages, schedules and continuation pages; mark unsupplied information as unknown.

Companies Registry: NAR1, specification 2/2025 ↗Companies Registry: Unique Business Identifier guide ↗

How is NAR1 different from NNC1, an annual report or a register report?

NNC1 records incorporation particulars. NAR1 is an annual return for a later made-up date. A Company Particulars Report is a separate register-search product. If a recipient asks for NAR1, confirm any proposed substitute rather than silently supplying a different document.

An Annual Return is not the same document as a financial annual report. Read accounting-period fields in the context of company type: the current private-company specimen marks the financial-statement-period section as not requiring completion. That does not establish that the company has no accounting records or obligations.

Companies Registry: private-company NAR1 specimen (fictional data) ↗Companies Registry: electronic search FAQ ↗

Compare a real historical return with its extracted data

Our sample contains the first two pages of ARCH MARKETING LIMITED’s NAR1 made up to 2022-08-02. Download PDF, Excel, JSON and XML to compare the company identifier and capital. Director and member pages are not included; the excerpt does not establish complete ownership or present-day particulars.

If you are preparing a return, check official deadlines and fees before using the official submission route. If you need a historical filing, specify the entity, date and document type. ClariRecord’s retrieval and data-preparation work is separate from filing an annual return for a company.

ClariRecord: two-page NAR1 source and extraction sample ↗Companies Registry: private-company annual returns ↗

Frequently asked questions