How to Register a New Business?
Business registration in the UK is an incredibly fast and simple process. Applications of registration are submitted to the Companies House electronically. The approval for the same is granted within at least 3 hours.
To register your new business or company as a private company limited by guarantee or shares in the UK, you need to meet several specifications:
- Must have a unique name for your company or business
- Must have a registered office address in Scotland, England, and Wales, or Northern Ireland
- Should have at least one director for the company
- Also, requires at least one guarantor or shareholder (owner) for the company. He can be the director of the company
- Should have share capital of minimum one issued share i.e. only limited by share companies
- Must have four SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes which describe full details about your business
These are some of the points you must consider at the time of UK business registry. There are so many company formation packages available online that you can utilize to register a limited company or LLP in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales.
What kind of documents do you require for business registration in the UK?
The documents you require to register your business in the UK depend upon the registration mode you’re using. You can register your business through Companies House or a company formation agent.
Registration through a company formation agent:
If you decide to go with a company formation agent to register your business, you won’t need to deal with any paperwork or documentation by yourself. You just have to fill a simple applicable form online. Some necessary documents must be submitted to the Companies House are as:
- Articles of Association: This is the governing document of the company. What is includes:
- Rules about how the business should be handle or run
- When & how shares can be transferred and issued
- Rights and responsibilities of company’s directors and other members
- Approval for the sensitive words in a company name. This document is required only if your business name contains any sensitive word into it. If there is any sensitive word in a company name, you need to have an approval by Companies House. This approval certificate is then added to your online application form as a supportive document. Examples of the sensitive words: Association, England/English/British, Foundation/Fund/Society/Trust, Fund, Government/Parliament, Her Majesty/His Majesty, Insurance, Group, Holding, United Kingdom, European, International, Register, registered, registration, registry.
- Memorandum of Association: This includes the information about the members of a business like guarantors and shareholders. You don’t need to give full information during the registration procedure. You will get a copy of approval.
Registration through Companies House:
If you select Companies House method to register your company online, you have to fill the IN01 form firstly. Fill this form and submit it to Companies House manually or online. This is an extensive procedure of 2-10 days. Depending on the service you’re using to submit IN01 form either online or by post, you have to submit some other documents.
Documents you need to submit while using postal method are as:
- Application form IN01 to register your business
- Articles of Association
- The memorandum of association
- Approval for using the sensitive words in your company name
The postal application procedure can be used to register a business limited by guarantee or shares with Model articles. Whereas, the online application method from Companies House is used only to submit a company limited by shares with the standard articles of association (Model Articles).
This is the little information about business registration in the UK. This shows that registering a new business in the UK is not so difficult or time-consuming if you’re familiar with the procedure. Once your business is registered, you will get a certificate of incorporation. This certificate displays the company name and formation date which confirms that the company legally exists.
Our advice is to register your company with a Companies House Agent. This will save you time because they will help you with the application by answering any questions.