Home/Private company limited by shares
Register a private limited company
The default UK company: owned through shares, run by directors, liability limited to what is unpaid on the shares.
Who it is for. Almost every business intended to make a profit for the people who own it — from a single freelancer incorporating for the first time to a company with several shareholders and outside investment.
What Companies House needs
- At least one director aged 16 or over, of any nationality or country of residence
- At least one shareholder, who is very often the same person
- A statement of capital — how many shares, of what class, at what nominal value
- A registered office in the jurisdiction of registration
- Anyone with more than 25% of shares or votes recorded as a person with significant control
- Articles of association; the model articles are the default
What this form gets wrong most often
- Liability is limited, not eliminated
- A director who gives a personal guarantee to a bank or landlord is personally liable on that guarantee. Limited liability protects you from the company's ordinary trading debts, not from promises you made yourself.
- Shares decide everything later
- Who owns what, who can block what, and who gets paid first. One £1 share is legal, and it is also the thing people most often have to unpick when a second shareholder arrives.
- The company's money is not your money
- Taking it out is a salary, a dividend, or a director's loan, and each has different tax and different paperwork. Treating the business account as a personal one is the most common expensive mistake.
What has to be filed afterwards
- Confirmation statement every year
- Annual accounts to Companies House and a corporation tax return to HMRC
- Identity verification for directors and people with significant control
- Filings when directors, shares, the name or the registered office change
Questions
Can one person own and run a limited company?
Do I need to be a UK resident?
How much share capital do I need?
Can I change from sole trader to a limited company?
Private company limited by shares
£12.99 + VAT
plus £100 Companies House fee- Name ends in
- Limited, Ltd, Cyfyngedig or CYF
- Jurisdictions
- England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Full price list on the pricing page. Companies House sets and collects its own fee.
Other structures
Private company limited by shares enquiry
Tell us who is involved and what the organisation is meant to do. If a different structure fits better, we will say so before you pay for this one.
Private company limited by shares
Tell us what you are trying to do and we will reply with what is involved. No obligation, and we will say so plainly if what you need is not something we do.