Steps to create a company in the UK

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Hi all,

This post covers details on How to set up a company, and to some extent how to manage elements around it.

  1. Register your company via gov. uk - very easy to do yourself - https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/register-your-company - select the Limited company option. Steps for a Partnership company will be different. But I chose to register a Limited company. Please ask your accountant which works better.

  2. What all you will need (only for Limited company):
    (i) An address - this can be your accountant’s address - £100/year approx. There are also specific address companies like Hoxton Mix (quite popular with TN folks) hoxtonmix (dot) com
    (ii) Once you have the address, only then log into the gov. uk site
    (iii) Now you will see a few specific questions - How many shares to issue and at what price. I went with 10,000 shares at £0.01 per share or a share capital of £100
    (iv) Add Directors and indicate share [Helpful note: Shareholders can be from outside the UK, incase you want 2+ shareholders, you can be the Director as you are living here. Directors might also be possible as external ones (needs checking) but I just kept myself as Director to make things easy]
    (v) Rest of the steps are fairly easy. There might have been one other tricky question but I can’t require 100% if there was. Mostly above one should have you sorted.

  3. After registering company, two key steps:
    (i) Open a Bank Account - my shortlist were Tide and Revolut. I have both accounts for my co, but now use Revolut as I needed to get USD payments from external markets. Tide has recently launched payment receipt in EUR but not yet for USD. Other factors to consider like payroll. Tide and Revolut both allow Payroll.
    (ii) Get a Government Gateway ID from HMRC https://www.gov.uk/log-in-register-hmrc-online-services/register - follow the instructions for a Company.

[Note all letters for Gateway ID, company registration and Government Gateway ID will go to your registered address so please make sure you take a mail forwarding option over email.]

  1. Key company managing steps:
    (i) Register for PAYE using above Government Gateway ID
    (ii) Register for Corporation Tax
    (iii) Register for VAT - only if you think you will cross £85,000 - note you dont have to charge VAT on payments from abroad (for providing services abroad) for technology consulting and work.
    (iv) Register for Self Assessment (if applicable in your case) - you’ll need to confirm this with your accountant.
    (v) ACTIVATE each of above. Remember that activating is separate to registering :sweat_smile: - I missed this and had to deal with a lot of headache and missed critical payments to HMRC
    (vi) Pension - figure details if you want to pay Pension via your company. I chose not to. I instead opened a Pension account via interactive investor and deposited pension through that. You might have to submit some kind of Exemption notification to HMRC - ask your accountant. Since I haven’t activated the pension via my company, I do not know what is involved there.

  2. Integrating these (PAYE etc.) with Payroll software
    (i) Once you have your PAYE you can pay yourself. If you choose to pay yourself via Revolut or similar software you will have to enter your Government Gateway ID and password on the software. This is important so all paperwork relating to payments gets submitted to HMRC. Note your MUST activate PAYE via your government gateway ID before initiating payroll via a software.
    (ii) Another important point on Revolut atleast - when you process your payroll it does not automatically pay the amounts due to HMRC - you have to do a manually confirmation. Don’t miss it.
    (iii) for VAT your accountant should be able to help. Note if you charge people in the Uk you will likely need to charge VAT against all your work)

  3. Get a good accountant to manage your Company and Self Assessment Filings. I use two different ones for each. Company is via a co called The Accountancy Partnership - one of the most low cost ones I have found. And personal self assessment is via another accountant that does it for around £250-350. Company one I pay around £800 - one year dormant co was £250.

  4. Thats it. Now the only problem you have to solve is drive some revenue in :slightly_smiling_face:

All the best. I won’t be able to answer specific questions - so pls post any and the wider community can help.

I might have missed some important bits, if others have experience please point out errors and additions and I will make them.

9 Likes
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@Anurag_Singh Thank you so much for this informative piece. I have been on the lookout for something similar. The LLC registered 3 months ago is active but still no income for now. When am I supposed to start filing taxes?

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Best to check with your accountant. Once you have incorporated you will have to file taxes. I would imagine you need to do annually towards end of financial year. My first year company revenue was 0 and with some loss.

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@Anurag_Singh Thanks for the information, I will definitely check with an accountant.

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I used https://www.yourcompanyformations.co.uk/ and they setup most of the steps listed above except to the point when you need a payee account.

I setup with an international account and business was setup with the home office in just a few hours

For the mailing address I used anytimemailbox.com for that

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I would strictly use the gov.uk official link in my post. Or just search up gov uk company formation. No purpose / advantage of using any other link.

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