The question of how to form a company is a common query asked by many members of the public who have no prior experience or knowledge of forming a company in the UK.
This article seeks to address the common assumption made by many in the company formation industry, that someone who has been an employee their entire working life is familiar with how to form a UK limited company.
It is written on the basis that a single person wishes to incorporate a business.
Forming a company requires that a collection of elements are in place in order to be successful. These apply to equally to both trading and dormant companies as the requirements and procedures to form either type of company are identical.
A brief description of the attributes which are necessary when forming a UK company (with references made to more detailed coverage of each individual area) now follows:
| It is a requirement to have a company director who will be the person in charge of running the company and making decisions for its immediate and future benefit. Even where the entity will be not trade, this person will still be shown as the named director on the Companies House UK register. |
| For all companies limited by shares, at least one shareholder is needed. In small companies, the shareholder (owner of the company) is often also the director which is perfectly permissible. |
| In order to form a limited company, an address on the UK mainland is required. This can be a home, other residential of business location. |
| At the very least a means to pay the company registration fee is necessary, even when incorporating a business directly with the Registrar. £24.99 is the lowest cost package offered by Complete Formations and a debit or credit card is required in order to make a purchase. |
| Answers to the online security questions which stand as the director’s and shareholder’s signature is important. This information can delay the formation of a company if it is not to hand when it is needed as some on the questions are of a personal nature. |
Further references on how to form a company are contained within this resource; specifically Getting Started, which details the exact procedures involved in setting up a company with Complete Formations. Forming a Company, is it easy or difficult contains some good commonsense advice on how to avoid the pitfalls frequently encountered by those who want to register a company for the first time.
The search facility on this site can help explain most of the commonly used terms and language used during the registration process, but in the absence of finding an appropriate answer, please contacts us with any questions. Any views and comments on further information which could be provided to help answer the question how to form a company would also be appreciated.
