Registering a company, question by question

What does registering a company actually do?

It creates a separate legal person. From the moment Companies House issues the certificate of incorporation, the company can hold money, sign contracts, employ people, owe tax and be sued — as itself, not as you. That separation is the whole point, and it is also the whole obligation: the company has its own filing duties, its own deadlines and its own public record, and they continue whether or not it ever trades.

Registering is not the same as being allowed to trade. A company that needs a licence — to handle client money, to sell alcohol, to work with children — still needs that licence. Incorporation gives you the vehicle, not the permission.

What does Companies House need to register a company?

Eight things. Every formation, at every agent, is these eight and nothing more.

You also give at least one SIC code describing what the company does. It is chosen in seconds at formation and then read years later — by banks, by insurers, by lenders — as a statement of what you actually do. Choose it as if someone will.

What does it cost to register a company in the UK?

There are two amounts, and honest pricing keeps them apart. Companies House charges £100 to incorporate digitally, £124 by paper, and £156 same-day. Those fees took effect on 1 February 2026 and go to Companies House, not to any agent.

On top of that sits the agent’s own fee. Ours starts at £12.99 plus VAT and every line is published on the pricing page. Be careful with headline prices of a pound or two: that fee is a loss-leader recovered through address renewals, filing fees and bank referral commission. There is nothing wrong with the model as long as you can see the renewals before you buy — usually the part that is hard to find.

The recurring costs after year one decide what a company really costs: the registered office renewal, the service address renewal, the confirmation statement — which carries its own Companies House fee of £50 — and accounts.

Which company structure should you register?

What becomes public when you register a company?

More than most people expect. The company name and number, registered office, SIC codes, the names of directors with their service addresses, month and year of birth, nationality and country of residence, the PSC register, the statement of capital, the articles, and every account and confirmation statement filed since incorporation. It is free to search and it is permanent — superseded information stays visible in the filing history.

What is not published is a director’s residential address, provided a separate service address has been given, and the full date of birth. That is precisely why a director service address exists, and why using your home address at formation is very hard to reverse: changing it later removes it going forward, but the historic filings stay.

Do company directors have to verify their identity?

Yes. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, directors and people with significant control must have a verified identity, either directly with Companies House or through an authorised corporate service provider — an ACSP — which is a status Companies House grants and which can be checked. Verification attaches to the person, not the company, so someone who is a director of four companies verifies once.

Any agent offering to form a company without anyone’s identity being verified is describing something that is no longer lawful.

What has to be filed after incorporation?

• Corporation tax registration with HMRC, within three months of starting to trade. The UTR arrives by post to the registered office.
• A confirmation statement every year, due whether or not anything changed, with a £50 Companies House fee.
• Annual accounts to Companies House and HMRC. A dormant company still files.
• Event-driven filings — appointing or removing a director, changing the registered office, issuing or transferring shares, changing the name.
• VAT once turnover passes the threshold HMRC sets, or voluntarily before that.
• PAYE before the first salary is paid, including to yourself.

The most common way a new company gets into trouble is not fraud or failure. It is a confirmation statement nobody diarised, followed by a proposal to strike the company off, arriving at an address nobody was reading.

Can a non-resident register a UK company?

Yes. There is no requirement for a director or shareholder to live in the UK, and no requirement to visit. The company still needs a registered office in its jurisdiction of registration, and every director and PSC still verifies their identity, which takes more evidence from abroad.

The genuine obstacle is banking, not registration. Some providers require a UK-resident director, some require an in-person visit, and some will onboard remotely with additional evidence — which is why we say what is realistic before a formation is sold, not after. See business bank accounts.

How long does it take to register a company?

Companies House publishes its own processing times, and they move. We will not print a number we do not control, and an agent promising “three hours” is quoting a same-day service that costs £156 at Companies House and still depends on their queue and on your submission being clean. What we can control is that your submission is clean.

What is the difference between using a formation agent and registering directly?

You can register a company yourself, directly, for the statutory fee. Nothing here is a substitute for that and we would rather say so. An agent is worth paying when you want the name checked properly before submission, a registered office and service address so your home address is not published, identity verification handled as an ACSP, and the filings after year one kept on a diary rather than in your inbox. If none of that applies to you, use the Companies House web service and keep the money — the full comparison is here.