Fast UK company formation

£103.59 all-in for our Basic Package. That is £2.99 +VAT for the package and £100 for the Companies House fee, which carries no VAT. Privacy is £14.99 +VAT plus the fee, and All Inclusive is £39.99 +VAT plus the fee. The Companies House fee is the same whoever registers your company, so the only question is what you get on top of it. Registering directly costs £100 and includes nothing else: no bank account introduction, no Rapid Check of your application before it goes in, no one to call, and your first confirmation statement still to file. Every Rapid package includes all four. Optional extras such as Same-Day Incorporation are priced separately at checkout, and you choose whether to add them. See all package prices.

Go by what you need in the first year, not the price gap. Basic (£2.99 +VAT) registers your company, verifies your ID, introduces you to a bank and files your first confirmation statement. Choose it if you have a UK address you are happy to make public. Privacy (£14.99 +VAT) adds our Covent Garden registered office, service address and business address for 12 months, so your home address stays off the register, and your post is scanned and emailed to you. All Inclusive (£39.99 +VAT) adds VAT and PAYE registration, our Hassle-Free Compliance Service, and free meeting room space in London. If you plan to employ anyone, including yourself, or expect to pass the VAT threshold, All Inclusive saves you from doing both registrations later. Compare the three side by side.

Five things, with every package. A choice of eight business bank accounts, introduced during your order. Rapid Check, our free pre-submission review, which matters because roughly one in ten applications nationally are rejected, usually for avoidable errors. Your identity verification and personal code, handled with the order at no charge. Your first confirmation statement, prepared and filed by us. And a UK-based support team by phone, chat or email for as long as your company exists. Companies House registers your company for £100 and leaves the rest to you. We do the same registration, through the same electronic link, for £3.59 more. How to form a company with us.

Only if you choose to put it there. Companies House publishes your company’s registered office address and a correspondence address for each director and PSC. Use your home for either and anyone can look it up. Our Privacy and All Inclusive Packages include 12 months at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, as your registered office, service address and business address, so our address is published instead of yours. Your home address is still given to Companies House, but it is held on a protected record and never shown. If you want the registered office on its own, it is £39.00 a year with the Basic Package. London Registered Office.

About 10 minutes for you to complete the application, then usually under 24 hours for Companies House to approve it. Companies House works through applications in the order they arrive, so an application submitted on a weekday morning is often registered the same afternoon; one submitted on a Friday evening is approved on Monday. If it has to be today, add Same-Day Incorporation at checkout. It is available with every package, Monday to Friday, for orders placed before Midday UK time. The moment Companies House approves, we email your documents and your company can start trading. Start your company formation.

We do, on every order, at no extra cost. Before your application is submitted, it goes through Rapid Check, our free pre-submission review. Our company formation team checks that PSC details are correct, residential addresses are in the right format, there are no sensitive words or unpermitted characters in the company name and the name is still available, share classes and particulars are correct, and, for LLPs, that the percentages are right. Around 10% of UK company applications are rejected, usually for errors like these, and we correct them before anything goes to Companies House. If Companies House still rejects an application, we find out why and resubmit free of charge. Why did Companies House reject my incorporation?

Yes, with your order, for every director and PSC, at no charge. Identity verification with Companies House is now compulsory before a company can be registered. Rapid Formations is an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), approved by Companies House to verify identities and submit filings, so the check runs as part of your application and usually takes a few minutes. Once you are verified, Companies House issues you a personal code. It is yours for life, not the company’s, and you will use it for every future filing and any other company you form or join. We store it securely in your Online Company Manager. We are also supervised by HMRC for anti-money laundering and are members of ACRA. ID requirements.

Yes. One person can be the sole director and the sole shareholder of a UK limited company, and tens of thousands of companies are registered that way every year. You do not need a second director, a company secretary or anyone else. During your application, you enter your own details once, as director and as shareholder, and the form does the rest. If you later bring in a partner or an investor, you can appoint a director or issue new shares through a Companies House filing, and we offer both as services. Required information for company setup.

Eight, with every package: Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds, Starling, Monzo, Zempler, ANNA and Wise. You pick one during your order and, as soon as your company is registered, we pass your details to the bank and they contact you to open the account. Starling, Monzo, Zempler and ANNA typically open the account within a day or two through an app; the high-street banks take longer and may ask for a call or a branch visit. Every account is subject to the bank’s own checks. Wise is also the account we recommend for customers outside the UK, because it supports multiple currencies. If you would rather not be introduced, just skip the step. Our business banking partners.

You can close it. Dissolving a company that has never traded is a routine Companies House filing, and we can do it for you for £89.99 +VAT. Alternatively, keep the company dormant and file dormant accounts each year, which is cheaper than forming it again later if your plans change back. For the first 12 months you can also add Cancellation Protection at checkout for £14.99; if you decide within the year that you no longer need the company, we dissolve it for you at no further cost. Company Dissolution Service.

It is the act of creating a limited company by registering it at Companies House. Until that happens, a business is just you. After it, there is a separate legal person with its own name, registration number and bank account, which can sign contracts, owe money and be sued in its own right. Forming one means choosing a name, naming at least one director and one shareholder, giving a UK registered office and email address, and submitting the application. Companies House checks it, usually within 24 hours, and issues a Certificate of Incorporation. People say company registration, incorporation and formation; all three mean the same thing. Rapid Formations has registered companies this way since 2013, more than 36,000 a year. What is company registration?

For most people, the answer is a private company limited by shares. It is what the phrase “limited company” usually means; it is built for making a profit and paying it out to its owners, and it accounts for more than 95% of UK registrations. A limited liability partnership suits two or more people running a business as partners, each taxed personally on their share of the profit; solicitors, accountants, consultants and agencies are typical. A company limited by guarantee is for organisations that will not pay profit to their members, such as clubs, charities, community groups and residents’ associations. It has guarantors rather than shareholders and no share capital. We register all three, and each has its own package.

Three rules, and one check most people miss. The name must be different from every company already on the register, and “different” does not mean a change of spelling or a plural. It must end in Limited or Ltd (or LLP for a partnership). And it must not include a sensitive word without permission: anything implying a link to government, royalty, a profession or a regulated activity, such as Royal, Chartered, Bank, Insurance or Police. The check people miss is the trademark register. A name can be free at Companies House and still infringe someone’s mark. Our name checker searches the Companies House register live, and our team flags sensitive words before your application is submitted. How to choose a company name.

A Standard Industrial Classification code is a five-digit number that tells Companies House what your company does. You choose between one and four from the official list, and they appear on the public register. Pick the code that describes your main activity now, not what you might do later; you can change SIC codes on your next confirmation statement. Most small companies need only one. If you are forming the company but have no plans to start trading, use 99999, which marks it as dormant. The application includes a searchable list, and if you cannot find a fit, our team will suggest one. What is a SIC code and why does my company need one?

A director can be anyone aged 16 or over who is not disqualified, bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order. There is no requirement to live in the UK or to hold any qualification. A company can have as many directors as it wants, but at least one must be a person rather than another company. Every director must verify their identity with Companies House before the company is registered, which we do for you during your order. A secretary is optional. Private companies have not needed one since 2008, and most small companies do not appoint one. If you do, they must be named to Companies House but do not have to verify their identity. Who can register a limited company?

Start with a number that divides the way you want ownership to split. One founder: a single share is enough, though 100 at £1 each costs nothing more and gives you room to bring in others later. Two founders at 60/40: 100 shares, 60 and 40. Shares are issued at a nominal value, usually £1, and shareholders are liable only for the value of shares they have not paid for, so keep the nominal value low. Anyone with more than 25% of the shares or voting rights is a person with significant control (PSC) and must be recorded at Companies House; our application does this for you. You can issue more shares later with a Companies House filing. A guide to limited company shares.

Run the company in its interests and keep it compliant. The Companies Act sets seven general duties, which come down to acting within the company’s powers, promoting its success, exercising independent judgement and reasonable care, and avoiding conflicts of interest. The practical duties are the filings: a confirmation statement every 12 months, annual accounts within nine months of the year end, a Corporation Tax return and payment to HMRC, and keeping Companies House informed of changes to directors, PSCs, the registered office and the registered email. Miss the accounts deadline and penalties start at £150. Persistent failure can mean prosecution, personal liability and disqualification for up to 15 years. Our Hassle-Free Compliance Service covers the Companies House filings. Limited company directors: everything you need to know.

The registered office is the company’s legal address, where Companies House and HMRC write to the company. A service address is a director’s or PSC’s official address, where those bodies write to that person. Both are published on the register. A business address is a trading address for everything else: customers, suppliers, banks and the mail they send. It is not required by law and is not published unless you use it. All three can be the same address, and with our Privacy and All Inclusive Packages they are: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, for 12 months. Government mail to the registered office and service address is scanned and emailed to you free; business mail is scanned and emailed at a cost of 50p per item. Company address guide.

You need a UK registered office. You do not need to live in the UK, visit it, or hold British nationality, and neither does any director or shareholder. Companies House requires a registered office in the UK, a registered email address, at least one director aged 16 or over and identity verification for every director and PSC. That is the full list. Our Non-Residents Packages supply the UK address, handle the identity verification, introduce you to Wise for a UK business account that holds multiple currencies, and include our Hassle-Free Compliance Service for the first year. We register companies for residents of most countries. Non-Residents Packages.

Our mail team at 71-75 Shelton Street opens it, scans it and emails it to you, normally the same working day. For the Registered Office and Service Address services, that covers all statutory mail from Companies House, HMRC, the courts and other government bodies, and it is free. For the Business Address service, it covers everything else addressed to your company, with a 50p charge per item scanned. Anything that cannot be scanned, such as a bank card, a cheque or a parcel, is forwarded by post at cost plus 15%. Each scan is also stored in your Online Company Manager, so you have a permanent record of every letter. London Business Address.

Four, by email, within minutes of Companies House approving your company: the Certificate of Incorporation, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, share certificates for each shareholder, and your WebFiling authentication code. The certificate is the one banks ask for; it shows your company name, number and date of incorporation. The articles are the rules your company runs by, and most new companies use the standard model articles. The authentication code lets you file directly with Companies House if you ever want to. Every document is stored in your Online Company Manager alongside your personal code, so you can download any of them whenever you need them. Online Client Portal.

Yes, and many people do, to secure a name or to have the company ready before a business starts. A dormant company is one with no significant accounting transactions. You register it like any other, choosing SIC code 99999, and once HMRC sends your Unique Taxpayer Reference, you tell them the company is not trading so they do not expect a Corporation Tax return. Dormant does not mean nothing to do: the company must still file a confirmation statement and dormant accounts with Companies House every year, and your first set is due 21 months after incorporation. We prepare and file dormant accounts for you. Dormant Company Accounts.

First, it is unlikely to be rejected because we check every application before it is submitted and address whatever needs fixing. If Companies House rejects it anyway, it tells us why, and we resubmit at no charge. If a mistake gets through, most things can be changed after incorporation by filing with Companies House: the registered office, directors, shareholders, SIC codes and even the company name. We offer all of those as services. The two things that cannot be changed are the company number and the date of incorporation. If you spot an error after registration, tell our support team, and we will set out the quickest fix. 10 mistakes to avoid when registering a limited company.

Corporation Tax, yes, within three months of starting to trade; HMRC posts your Unique Taxpayer Reference to your registered office within a couple of weeks of incorporation, and you register online with it. PAYE, yes, before you pay anyone a salary, including yourself. VAT, only when your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any 12-month period, or sooner if you choose to register voluntarily, which can suit businesses whose customers are VAT-registered. Our All Inclusive Package includes VAT and PAYE registration. The timeline above shows when each of these and your Companies House filings fall due in the first two years. VAT registration service.