Set up a limited company

The default constitutional rules a company adopts at formation. Fine for simple companies; customised articles matter once investors or multiple founders arrive.

Different types of shares (A, B, ordinary, preference) carrying different rights to dividends, votes and capital — the structure decision that's cheap at formation and expensive later.

The 6-character code Companies House issues at incorporation — the company's electronic signature, required for every online filing.

The 11-character identifier directors receive after mandatory identity verification (in force since November 2025), used on filings alongside the company's authentication code.

The £90,000 threshold is measured over any consecutive 12 months, not your accounting year — the detail that catches most late registrants.

The date your VAT obligations start — set by when you crossed the threshold, or chosen deliberately for voluntary registrations.

Registering below the threshold — often smart for B2B businesses (reclaim input VAT, look established), usually a price rise for B2C.

Name (we check availability and rules first — 'same as' rejections waste days), who the directors and shareholders are, how many shares and of what class (50/50 without thought is the classic future dispute), registered office address, and your accounting reference date. We walk each decision in plain English before filing anything.

Immediately after incorporation: the certificate and company details unlock the application, and the fintech options (Starling, Tide, Mettle and similar) typically open within days. From transaction one, company money stays in company accounts — the single habit that makes your accounts cheap and your liability protection real.

PAYE: before the first salary payment — including your own; a scheme takes days to set up. VAT: when the threshold demands or when strategy justifies volunteering (B2B businesses reclaiming setup costs often benefit early). Both are £49–£79 with us, and both are decisions we make with you at formation rather than leaving as year-one surprises.

It depends on profit level, risk and how you'll pay yourself. Very roughly, incorporation starts becoming tax-efficient around £30,000–£40,000 of profit — but liability protection and client expectations matter too. Try our Ltd vs sole trader calculator, or ask us for a view on your numbers.

Yes — our registered office service keeps your home address off the public record at Companies House and includes scanning of statutory mail.

Because the registered office appears on the public register, where anyone — marketers, ex-customers, strangers — can look it up, and historic addresses stay visible for years even after you change them. A service address costs less than most people guess and fixes it permanently.

The registered office is the company's official address; the service address is each director's personal official address. Both are public, so both need covering — our combined package does exactly that.

If you pay yourself a salary above HMRC's lower earnings threshold, yes — a sole director drawing the usual tax-efficient salary needs an employer scheme just like a ten-person firm. It's how the salary gets reported and how your state pension record gets credited.

The application goes in immediately; HMRC typically posts your employer references within one to three weeks. Register before the first pay day — you can't run compliant payroll without the references, and backdating is messier than waiting.

When your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period — not your accounting year, which is the detail that catches people. You must also register if you expect to cross it in the next 30 days alone. We'll check your position for free before you commit to anything.

Often, yes — if your customers are VAT-registered businesses, you reclaim VAT on your costs while your prices stay effectively unchanged to them. If you sell to the public, it's usually a straight price rise. That's exactly the conversation we have before filing.