Your business details

No, you can’t use an office address outside of the UK. Your registered office must be in the UK and within the same country as the company you’re trying to form. So, if you’re setting up a limited company in the UK, your registered office address must also be in the UK and not, say, Spain.

Yes. Once you’ve registered your company and we’ve set it up with Companies House you’re free to add or change your company information. To do this you’ll need to contact Companies House directly. You’ll find their contact details at Companies House.

If your company turnover is less than £90,000 annually, you don’t need to register for VAT. You may still want to as it can be beneficial for some businesses depending on their situation. You can find out more about VAT on the GOV.UK website.

No. However, if you do choose to appoint one, you will need to submit their details as part of your application. You can always appoint one later by contacting Companies House directly.

A shareholder is someone who owns part or all of a company as shares. Being a shareholder entitles you to a share of the company profits, as well as a say in important company issues, such as appointing new directors.

Yes. Every UK limited company must have at least one shareholder. That can be you or someone else. You can also add other shareholders in our online portal.

The public record is a register of everyone who has set up a limited company. This means that when you set up a limited company, you must be prepared to have some of your details made publicly available. You can read more about the public record on the Companies House website.

Yes. Every UK limited company has to have at least one director, which for your company will be you. If you want to add or remove a director later, you can log in to our online portal where you’ll see your company name under ‘Recently Incorporated Companies’. If you click on ‘Details’ you’ll be taken to the overview page where you can use the edit buttons on the right-hand side to add, remove or amend a company director.

The company director is legally responsible for running the company and reporting to HMRC and Companies House. You can hire someone (or several people) to manage some of your day-to-day director responsibilities, such as an accountant for example. It’s important to understand you’re the one legally responsible for your company’s records, accounts and performance even if they’ve been looked after by someone you’ve hired. You can set up your company if you have a single director, or multiple directors.

At present we are only allowing set up of limited companies with all Directors resident in the UK.

A Person with Significant Control (PSC) is someone who owns or controls your company. These are sometimes called the Beneficial Owner(s) (BOs). The PSCs in your application should reflect the ownership and control of your company as stated in Companies House. To align with your business details on Companies House, we refer to them as ‘PSCs’ in our application form and communications. For more information on PSCs, visit GOV.UK.

Shares represent ownership of a company. Most limited companies are 'limited by shares'. This means that the shareholders are not normally personally liable beyond their investment since the company is a separate legal entity from its owners. For more information, please contact your legal advisor or visit Companies House.

You can register as many shares as you want. If you’re the only shareholder, you’ll only need one share to own 100% of the company. Please contact your legal and tax advisers for more information about shares in your limited company. You can add more shares at any time after your company is registered by contacting Companies House directly.

Ordinary shares are the most common share type, mostly represented in British pounds sterling (GBP). Please contact your legal and tax advisers for more information about different types of shares. If you need more than one share type for your limited company, you’ll need to register it with Companies House using a different service as we only offer applications using ordinary shares.

Ordinary shareholders will:

• Have one vote per share on company decisions.
• Get a share of profits as dividend payments.
• Get a share of the capital (for example, if the business closes).

Yes. When you use our service to set up your limited company, your nominal share value will be set at £1 per share – but this isn’t linked to how much your company is worth. You can change the value and number of your company shares at any time after your company is registered by contacting Companies House directly.