Company Formation & Limited Company Registration in London

Forming a limited company means incorporating a new legal entity at Companies House — separate from you personally, with its own name, registration number, bank account and tax obligations. The company owns its assets, signs its contracts and carries its debts, which is why so many business owners incorporate: your personal exposure is generally limited to what you've invested.

The registration itself can be done online with Companies House for a £50 fee, and most applications are approved within 24 hours. But the form-filling is the easy part. The decisions behind it — share structure, who the directors and shareholders should be, how you'll pay yourself, which HMRC registrations you need — are where a new company is quietly set up well or badly. We've been forming companies for clients since 1991, and we set them up to be tax-efficient from day one.

• A company name — it must be unique at Companies House, not too similar to an existing company, and free of restricted or "sensitive" words. We check availability before you get attached to a name.
• A registered office address — a real UK address where official post can reach the company. Many clients use an address service rather than publishing their home address on the public register.
• At least one director — aged 16 or over, legally responsible for running the company and filing its accounts and returns on time.
• A share structure — how many shares, of what class, and who holds them. This determines who owns the company, who controls it and how dividends can be paid, and it's far cheaper to get right now than to restructure later.
• A PSC register — a record of every Person with Significant Control (broadly, anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or who otherwise controls the company).

You'll also adopt articles of association — the company's rulebook. Standard "model articles" suit most small companies, but businesses with multiple shareholders often need tailored provisions.

Incorporation isn't automatically the right answer, and plenty of people form a company they didn't need. The honest comparison looks something like this:

The tax answer depends on your profit level, whether you need to draw everything out or can leave money in the business, and your other income. Before we form a company for you, we run the numbers both ways — and if staying a sole trader leaves you better off, we'll tell you.

A certificate of incorporation is the start, not the finish. Within the first weeks of trading, most new companies need to deal with:

1. Corporation tax registration — HMRC must be told the company is active, normally within three months of starting to trade.
2. VAT registration — compulsory once taxable turnover crosses the registration threshold, and sometimes worth doing voluntarily earlier to reclaim VAT on costs.
3. PAYE registration — needed before the company can pay directors a salary or take on employees.
4. A business bank account — the company's money must be kept separate from yours; mixing the two is one of the most common and most damaging habits of new directors.
5. Accounting records and software — statutory record-keeping obligations begin immediately, and clean records from day one make your first year-end accounts straightforward and cheap.

When we form a company, these registrations are part of the job — you're not left with a certificate and a to-do list.

Not every business fits neatly into a single UK company. We regularly advise clients who are trading across borders, relocating to or from the UK, or building groups with entities in more than one country. That includes structuring UK companies for non-resident owners, advising on where a company is actually tax-resident, and coordinating with overseas advisers so the pieces fit together rather than fight each other.

Cross-border structures done casually create expensive problems — double taxation, unexpected filing obligations, and banks refusing to open accounts. Done properly, with the right substance and registrations in each jurisdiction, they support genuine international trade. If your plans reach beyond the UK, raise it at the first meeting so the structure is designed for it from the outset.

1. Structure consultation — we discuss what the business will do, who's involved and what you expect to earn, then recommend sole trader, partnership or limited company on the numbers.
2. Name check and incorporation — we verify the name, prepare the incorporation documents, set up the share structure and PSC register correctly, and file with Companies House.
3. HMRC registrations — corporation tax, plus VAT and PAYE where needed, all handled for you.
4. Getting you trading — guidance on business bank accounts, bookkeeping software, and how to pay yourself tax-efficiently as a director.
5. Ongoing support — most clients stay with us for annual accounts, payroll and tax, so the people who designed the structure are the ones running it.