My accountant did the company registration free for me. I'd caution against doing it yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing.<p>This is because, although the company creation itself is pretty simple, there are lots of legal requirements that you need to get right, and plenty of details you want to get right first time.<p>Just as one quick example- if you've been operating as a sole-trader, you'll probably find that there's a significant tax saving to be made by selling the goodwill and any other assets of the sole-trader to the Ltd Company. If you've been going a couple of years, this is likely to save you thousands in tax.<p>I don't believe its realistic for a trading Ltd company to deal with its tax affairs and annual accounts without an accountant (you may think you know what you're doing- but if you make a mistake, be aware that HMRC will be not be lenient on you just because you're not an accountant).
After looking around I used the Bronze package from Companies Made Simple. It ended up being slightly cheaper then using Companies House direct (my understanding of which is that Companies House only charges formation agents £14 per company). Both give you a PDF of the Certificate of Incorporation which you can print off yourself for the bank if they ask for it, plus if you're happy with Barclays the £50 cash back was pretty sweet.
I registered directly with Companies House a few months ago, after consulting an accountant. It was completely straightforward. I don't see any need to use a third party.
"But before you can do that, you need to figure out which package you want. The crucial factor is that in order to open a bank account, you will need a printed Certificate of Incorporation."<p>This is not true. I have registered a few companies and not once did they care about the printed certificate. They will call Companies House or email them and confirm you are a director and the company exists.<p>Note: My bank is Lloyds TSB.
What is the simplest way for citizen of EU member state to create and manage UK Ltd company without ever being to UK or owning anything else there (or renting physical office)?
Quick note, regarding "[c]ontrary to what some people will tell you, you can have your business registered at your home address. You can do so even if your tenancy agreement doesn't allow it (obviously, don't actually go out of your way to tell your landlord about it). I don't know anyone who has gotten in trouble because of this (though I'm sure you can find some rare examples if you try)."<p>I use to assess people for risk at a premier London estate agent.<p>We would have discovered this in our research via Company House, and if it had infringed your previous tenancy agreement (which it usually would have) we would have: (1) declined any potential tenancy outright, (2) told the future landlord that you had operated a business out of your previous address, and (3) left the final decision to the future landlord.<p>In the same job, I saw CCJs and Bankruptcies filed against the Landlord's property (when businesses went bust with debts to their name) because inexperienced estate agencies and property management agencies didn't properly vet their tenants.
I would advise that before people rush to register a Limited company they should consider operating as a sole trader. A sole trader can open a bank account, employ people, rent an office, register trademarks etc.<p>Also search thoroughly for your proposed company name to check for existing businesses with similiar names or trademarks. And you will probably want a domain name to match.
"As part of the company registration process, you might be tempted to come up with a lofty valuation for your shares. Don't. You'll only cause yourself hassle. Create 100 shares of £1 each and assign 1 share to each equal cofounder. You can change those numbers to reflect however you decided to set up the company. If you want to implement vesting, close this web page and get in touch with a solicitor."<p>This isn't the case if you register through Companies House - you have to allocate all share capital.<p>I found this out when using their online registration service recently - according to my accountant it's a change from the Companies Act 2006.<p>The Companies House registration service is definitely worth using - you'll probably get your company set up within an hour or two of filing the form. Unless you have a complicated shareholder agreement (in which case you really should get yourself a good lawyer if you don't already have one) the default Articles of Association will be fine for you.
One more thing I would like to add to this discussion is that if you register a company and are not based in Britain you will need to send notarised copies of your passport and bank statements (less than 3 months old).<p>This is the case if you are a director with 25% or more shareholding in the company. You are not required to hold a visa or visit the country.<p>This is my experience recently registering a company with two other people - I am British and the other two are Indians. I was present at the bank and registered for the account whilst the other two were overseas. Some couriered documents were required with the notarised documents as mentioned above, additionally they were required to complete a form which they signed.<p>They have full access to the account - online and offline - in the same way I have.
Any thoughts on this service:<p><a href="http://golimited.co/" rel="nofollow">http://golimited.co/</a><p>It was recently launched as a side project of startup I know in Brighton, UK. Seems super cheap.
I'm not looking to set myself up as a company, but just out of interest, what's the difference between registering yourself and buying an off-the-shelf limited company? I've known people do it both ways.<p>If getting yourself registered as a brand new company is so easy, what are the advantages of buying an empty limited company and changing its name? There must be some, or people wouldn't do it.
Anyone here who is using a UK company while not based there?<p>Supposedly there are some additional requirements when you're controlling a UK company from abroad. I'm interested in establishing an additional company for some of my ideas but am based in a country which requires high start up capital (Germany, Italy, Belgium, ...).<p>Anyone familiar with this?
Done.
Hardest part - picking a name.<p>Thanks swombat, I've held registering for a fair while now. As you say, simply because I wasn't 100% sure how to do it.
here I covered similar topics for Switzerland, if someone is interested.<p><a href="http://www.swinog.ch/meetings/swinog20/p/Swinog20_Starting_as_IT_Contractor.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.swinog.ch/meetings/swinog20/p/Swinog20_Starting_a...</a><p>In general, the Swiss company registration is a bit more expensive, and there are certain obligations.