Opening a company in the UK
Law Firm will provide you with full legal support for your UK business. Doing business requires certain legal and financial knowledge. Our experts will help you find a company in the UK, an account in an English bank, provide legal support of transactions and other business services, including tax planning and accounting services.
This note contains general recommendations and should be read in conjunction with the relevant documents or advice from a business specialist.
You can also get acquainted with the pages on the activities of a foreign company in the UK, on companies such as LLP, as well as on financial statements and the UK tax system. We recommend that you also read information about the directors and secretaries of companies.
This note outlines the requirements for the registration of private limited companies, public limited companies with unlimited companies, unlimited companies; the main differences between the types of companies, the documents necessary for their organization; Concepts of the founders, capital, officers and manager are considered. Law Firm business support provided by Law Firm includes a full list of business services in the UK.
After opening a company in the UK, you should regularly make changes to its public documents. Any changes in the financial or material situation of the company, its address or the composition of officials must be registered with the Registration Chamber.
The relevant law was enacted in the Companies Act of 1985, which was supplemented by the Act of 1989 and the later Companies Act 2006, the last provisions of which came into force on October 1, 2009, and for companies like RTM – The right to leadership and commonhold associations – the parliamentary reform of the 2002 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act. and relevant bills.
When you open a company in the UK, you accept responsibility for many obligations, so asking for help and advice from qualified professionals is the best way to successfully grow your business.
New companies
In accordance with UK law, four types of companies can be registered.
Private limited company. In companies of this type, the obligations of any shareholder can not be more than the amount of unpaid shares that he owns. This group also includes private equity companies CIC (Community Interest Companies) (EU). After the issue of shares, the company owns a certain number of these shares and, for example, 100 shares constitute the share capital of the company.
Two can be issued and fully paid, and the remaining 98 (namely, the amount of 98 pounds) constitute the amount of responsibility in relation to the company.
Private limited company. In this case, the liability of any participant or shareholder is limited to the amount invested by them in the assets of the company. This type of company is created solely for charitable purposes and cannot enter into transactions for profit.
A private company with unlimited liability is a company that does not have any restrictions for its members.
Open limited company. Shares of a company of this type may be offered for public sale, but the responsibility of shareholders, as in the case of limited liability companies, cannot exceed the amount of unpaid shares they own. This group also includes open CIC companies with limited liability.
Who can set up a company
In accordance with the law, any person may set up a company for any legal purposes if the company’s charter (company charter) is available. A public company or an unlimited company must have at least two shareholders.
Company opening procedure
With the entry into force of the 2006 Companies Act, a number of changes were introduced on company registration aimed at simplifying the registration process. Now for registration of the company only one form is necessary, the charter and the memorandum of association of the company and the corresponding payment.
The company’s charter (memorandum of association) has been significantly reduced, and its main goal is to confirm the intention of the company’s members to create a company and become a member. If the company has a share capital, then each of its members must express their consent to the ownership of at least one share. The objectives of the company should now be spelled out in the articles of incorporation.
There are 3 types of articles of association of the company (articles of association of a company): a prescribed model (model articles), a prescribed model with modified provisions (model articles with amended provision) and a specially developed articles of incorporation (bespoke articles)
