Last updated: 28 August 2026. Written and reviewed by Chris Barnard, Managing Director of Acenteus Accounting (ACCA, CIMA). Every fee, rate and deadline below was checked against Companies House, GOV.UK and HMRC guidance on 28 August 2026.
How do you set up a limited company in the UK in 2026?
To set up a limited company in the UK in 2026, you verify your identity with Companies House, choose a company name and at least one SIC code, appoint at least one director and one shareholder, provide an appropriate UK registered office address and a registered email address, then file the incorporation online. The digital filing fee is £100 and most applications are approved within 24 hours. You then have three months from the start of trading to register for Corporation Tax.
That sounds simple, and mechanically it is. What has changed is everything around it. Since 18 November 2025 you cannot be appointed as a director without a verified identity. Since 1 February 2026 the incorporation fee has doubled. Since 6 April 2026 dividends are taxed two percentage points higher, which has moved the point at which incorporating actually pays.
Most guides on this topic still quote the old £50 fee and the old dividend rates. This one does not. It also covers the parts founders get wrong after incorporation, which is where the real cost sits.
Key takeaways
- The fee is £100, not £50. Digital incorporation rose from £50 to £100 on 1 February 2026. Paper is £124 and same-day software filing is £156.
- Identity verification is compulsory. Every new director and person with significant control must verify before appointment. You cannot incorporate without it.
- The sole trader crossover has moved. The 2026/27 dividend rise plus employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 means the old “incorporate above £30,000 profit” rule of thumb no longer holds for every founder.
- A PO Box will not do. Since 4 March 2024 your registered office must be an appropriate address where post reaches a person and delivery can be acknowledged.
- Accounts filing changes in April 2028, not 2027. The software-only and profit and loss reforms were pushed back, and small companies will now be able to opt out of publishing the profit and loss account.
- Registration is fast, compliance is not. Incorporation takes hours. The Corporation Tax, PAYE, VAT and first-accounts sequence that follows takes months of attention.
What has actually changed for UK company formation in 2026?
Four separate reforms landed between November 2025 and June 2026. Together they change the cost, the process and the arithmetic of incorporating. If you are reading a guide that does not mention all four, it is out of date.
| Change | Effective from | What it means for a new company |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory identity verification for directors and PSCs | 18 November 2025 | You must verify and obtain a personal code before you can be appointed. New PSCs have 14 days to supply their code. |
| Companies House fee increases | 1 February 2026 | Digital incorporation £100, paper £124, same-day £156, confirmation statement £50 digital. |
| Dividend tax rise of 2 percentage points | 6 April 2026 | Basic rate 10.75%, higher rate 35.75%. Additional rate unchanged at 39.35%. |
| Accounts filing reform deferred and revised | Announced 9 June 2026, in force April 2028 | Software-only iXBRL filing plus profit and loss for small and micro entities, with an opt-out from public publication. |
The fee rise was confirmed by Companies House and summarised by ICAEW. The revised accounts timetable was announced on GOV.UK on 9 June 2026. Both are worth reading in full if you plan to run more than one company.
What does it cost to set up a limited company in the UK in 2026?
The only compulsory government charge is the Companies House filing fee. Everything else is optional, though in practice most founders pay for at least an address service or an accountant.
| Filing | Fee from 1 February 2026 | Previous fee |
|---|---|---|
| Digital incorporation | £100 | £50 |
| Paper incorporation (form IN01) | £124 | £71 |
| Same-day incorporation (software filing) | £156 | £78 |
| Annual confirmation statement, digital | £50 | £34 |
| Annual confirmation statement, paper | £110 | £34 |
| Voluntary strike-off, digital | £13 | £33 |
| Change of company name, same-day digital | £85 | Varies |
| ACSP registration | £63 | Not previously charged |
Note the direction of travel. Starting and maintaining a company costs more, while closing one costs less. Companies House has said the extra income funds its new powers under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, including identity verification and enforcement.
Beyond the filing fee, budget realistically for the first year. A registered office service typically runs from about £39 a year upwards. Accountancy fees for annual accounts, a CT600 and payroll vary widely by complexity.
If you want a benchmark before you commit, our guides on outsourced bookkeeping costs in the UK and what bookkeepers charge set out current market ranges rather than sales pricing.
Should you set up a limited company or stay a sole trader in 2026?
This is the question the fee tables never answer, and it is the one that matters most. For years the standard advice was that incorporating pays once profits pass roughly £30,000 to £50,000. Two changes have weakened that rule.
First, from 6 April 2026 the basic rate of dividend tax rose from 8.75% to 10.75% and the higher rate from 33.75% to 35.75%. The £500 dividend allowance stayed put. Second, from April 2025 employer National Insurance rose to 15% and the secondary threshold fell to £5,000, so a director salary at the personal allowance now carries a real employer NI cost. A sole director with no other employees cannot claim the Employment Allowance to offset it.
| Tax year | Dividend basic rate | Dividend higher rate | Dividend additional rate | Dividend allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 8.75% | 33.75% | 39.35% | £500 |
| 2026/27 | 10.75% | 35.75% | 39.35% | £500 |
The practical effect is that the take-home gap between a sole trader and a director on full profit extraction has narrowed sharply at lower profit levels, and in some published comparisons has reversed below roughly £40,000 of profit. Treat any single crossover figure with caution. It is a correlation drawn from one set of assumptions, not a rule.
The honest answer is that the crossover depends on four things no generic article knows about you: how much profit you actually extract each year, whether you have other income, whether the company has employees who make the Employment Allowance available, and whether you plan to leave profits in the company.
When incorporating still clearly makes sense
- You retain profit in the business. Retained profits are taxed only at the Corporation Tax rate until you withdraw them, which is the single strongest remaining argument for incorporating.
- You need limited liability. If your work carries genuine contractual or professional risk, the liability separation is worth more than the tax arithmetic.
- Your clients require it. Many corporate procurement teams, agencies and public sector frameworks will not contract with sole traders.
- You want to raise investment. SEIS and EIS relief is only available through a company, and you cannot issue shares as a sole trader.
- You want to split ownership. Shares allow you to bring in a co-founder or family shareholder in a way a sole trade cannot.
When staying a sole trader may be better
If your profits are modest, you draw everything you earn, and you value low admin, the company wrapper may cost you more than it saves once you add accountancy fees, the £50 confirmation statement and payroll. Note also that Making Tax Digital for Income Tax now applies to many sole traders, so the admin gap between the two structures is narrower than it once was. Our guide to MTD for Income Tax in 2026 explains who is in scope and when.
Before deciding, run your own numbers rather than trusting a threshold. Our free UK Corporation Tax calculator for 2026/27 handles marginal relief and associated companies, and the 2026/27 income tax rates guide gives the personal side.
How do you verify your identity before you can incorporate?
This is the step that stops most first-time founders, because it did not exist two years ago. Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025 under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, usually shortened to ECCTA. Every new director and every new person with significant control must be verified before or at the point of appointment. There is no way to incorporate around it.
The Act gave Companies House genuine gatekeeping powers for the first time since it was founded in 1844. Before this, the register recorded what it was told. It did not check.
The two routes to verification
- GOV.UK One Login. You verify directly with Companies House, free of charge, using photo identification. This is the default route for most UK residents.
- An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). A regulated firm, such as an accountant, solicitor or formation agent, verifies you on Companies House behalf. This is the usual route for overseas directors and anyone whose documents do not pass the automated check.
Either route ends with a Companies House personal code. The code belongs to you as an individual, not to a company or a role. You use the same code on every company you are ever appointed to, so keep it somewhere you will still be able to find it in five years.
The deadlines that actually apply to you
There is no single universal deadline, despite what many articles imply. Which trigger applies depends on your role and when you took it on.
| Who you are | When you must verify |
|---|---|
| New director appointed on or after 18 November 2025 | Before or at the point of appointment. You cannot be appointed without it. |
| Existing director appointed before 18 November 2025 | Before your company files its next confirmation statement. |
| New PSC registered on or after 18 November 2025 | Within 14 days of registering as a PSC. |
| Existing PSC who is also a director | The 14 day window runs from the company confirmation statement date. |
| Existing PSC who is not a director | The 14 day window runs from the first day of your birth month as shown on the register. |
| Everyone still unverified | The transition period backstop is 18 November 2026. |
Companies House estimated that six to seven million individuals would need to verify during the transition. Enforcement has been light during the first twelve months, but that is not the real risk. An unverified director blocks the confirmation statement immediately, and failing to file a confirmation statement is a criminal offence that can lead to fines and strike-off.
Verify early rather than in the week your filing is due. If an automated check fails, or an older Companies House record shows the wrong date of birth, a five minute task becomes a chase. The official guidance sits on the GOV.UK changes to UK company law site.
How do you choose a company name Companies House will accept?
Your name must not be the same as, or too similar to, a name already on the register. Use the Companies House name availability checker before you commit to a domain, a logo or printed material.
Since March 2024 Companies House has had stronger powers to reject names. It can refuse a name that appears intended to facilitate fraud, that gives a false impression of a connection with a foreign government or an international body, or that contains computer code. It can also direct an existing company to change a name that was wrongly registered.
Beyond that, the standing rules still apply. Your name cannot suggest a connection with the UK government or a local authority, cannot contain a sensitive word such as Chartered, Bank or Institute without permission, cannot be offensive, and cannot imply a criminal offence. A private limited company must end in Limited or Ltd, or the Welsh equivalents Cyfyngedig or Cyf if registered in Wales.
The check almost nobody runs
A company name is not a trade mark. Registering at Companies House stops another company registering the identical name. It does not stop anyone using that name as a brand, and it does not protect you if someone already holds a registered trade mark for it. Search the Intellectual Property Office register as well as the Companies House register before you print anything. Founders discover this the expensive way, usually after the first order of signage.
Which SIC code should you choose, and does SIC 2026 change anything?
Every UK company must give at least one Standard Industrial Classification code at incorporation. You can list up to four. The code describes what your business actually does and it appears on your public record.
For years the SIC code was treated as a formality. That has changed. Under ECCTA, Companies House can challenge, reject or remove information that looks incorrect or misleading, and it has confirmed that this power applies to SIC codes in the same way as anything else on the register.
In a guidance post published on 28 May 2026 by its Compliance and Enforcement Service, Companies House named the most common discrepancy: actively trading companies filing under the dormant code 99999 or the non-trading code 74990. Where the code does not match the activity, you may see filings delayed or rejected while the mismatch is investigated. Lenders and grant bodies also read the code, so a mismatch can quietly cost you funding.
What about SIC 2026?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a new classification, SIC 2026, on 28 April 2026. It contains 668 classes across 22 sections, introduces 132 new codes covering areas such as digital platforms, e-commerce, green energy and data centres, retires 98 codes and leaves 614 unchanged.
Here is the part that matters and that most articles get wrong. Companies House has not set a mandatory adoption date. Keep filing with SIC 2007 codes until it does. If your activity falls under one of the retired codes, identify your SIC 2026 equivalent now so you are ready, but do not attempt to file it yet.
You can only change a SIC code by filing a confirmation statement, which now costs £50 digitally. Since November 2025 the confirmation statement also requires you to confirm the company intends to operate for a lawful purpose.
Who do you need to appoint, and what are they responsible for?
Directors
Every limited company needs at least one director, and at least one director must be a natural person rather than a corporate entity. Directors must be 16 or over, must not be disqualified, and must not be undischarged bankrupts. They do not need to live in the UK, although the company must keep a UK registered office.
Directors carry the legal duties: filing accounts and confirmation statements on time, keeping accurate statutory and financial records, acting in the company interest, avoiding conflicts and meeting tax obligations. Failure can bring penalties, personal liability or disqualification. These duties sit with the director personally, not with the accountant.
Shareholders
A company limited by shares needs at least one shareholder, who can be the same person as the director. If you are the sole shareholder you own 100% of the company. Shareholders own the business and control it through voting rights. Directors run it. In a one-person company these are the same individual wearing two hats, which is fine so long as you remember which hat you are wearing when you take money out.
Persons with significant control
You must identify and register anyone who holds more than 25% of the shares, controls more than 25% of the voting rights, has the right to appoint or remove a majority of directors, or otherwise exercises significant influence or control. You record their name, date of birth, nationality and service address, and you state the band of control: over 25% up to 50%, more than 50% and less than 75%, or 75% or more.
Since November 2025 a PSC must also verify their identity and supply their personal code within 14 days. This is the single most commonly missed step in the new regime, because a PSC who is not also a director often does not realise the obligation applies to them at all.
Company secretary
Optional for a private limited company since the Companies Act 2006, and mandatory for a public company. If you do not appoint one, every administrative and compliance duty falls to the directors. Many small companies delegate the work to their accountant instead, which achieves the same outcome without the appointment appearing on the register.
What address can you use as your registered office in 2026?
Since 4 March 2024 your registered office must be an appropriate address. The Companies Act 2006 sets a two-part test. A document delivered there by hand or post must be expected to come to the attention of someone acting for the company, and the delivery must be capable of being recorded by an acknowledgement of delivery.
A Royal Mail PO Box on its own no longer qualifies. A formation agent or accountant address that meets both limbs is fine. The address must be a physical location in the same UK jurisdiction as your incorporation: England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.
If Companies House decides your registered office is not appropriate, it can move your company to a default address held at Companies House with no notice period, and it can impose a financial penalty. That is not a theoretical risk for a company using a home address it has since moved out of.
The registered email address
Separately, every company must maintain a registered email address. This has been mandatory for new companies since 4 March 2024. Companies House uses it for correspondence and it is not published on the public register. Failing to maintain an appropriate one is an offence by the company and its officers. Use a monitored business address, not a personal one you will abandon.
Keeping your home address off the register
Directors give a service address, which is public, and a usual residential address, which is kept on a private register. Since 27 January 2025 you can also apply to suppress a home address that was previously used as a registered office, once the office has moved elsewhere. It is far simpler to use a service address from day one than to unwind it later.
What documents do you actually have to file?
If you register online the paperwork is largely generated for you. It still helps to know what you are agreeing to.
- Memorandum of association. A short legal statement signed by the initial shareholders or guarantors confirming they are forming the company. Generated automatically when you file online.
- Articles of association. The company rulebook. You can adopt the standard model articles, adopt model articles with amendments, or draft bespoke articles.
- Statement of capital. For a company limited by shares: the number of shares, the classes, the nominal value and the rights attached to each class. There is no minimum capital, and £1 ordinary shares are normal.
- Statement of guarantee. For a company limited by guarantee: each guarantor and the amount guaranteed, commonly £1.
- Form IN01. The application itself, combining company details, directors, PSCs, registered office and share particulars. Only needed as a separate paper form if you file by post.
Model articles are adequate for most single-shareholder companies. They stop being adequate the moment you have more than one shareholder with different expectations, multiple share classes, or an intention to bring in investment. At that point take independent legal advice. Share rights, drag and tag provisions and reserved matters are legal questions, not accounting ones, and they are far cheaper to get right at formation than to fix later.
How do you register, and how long does it take?
Most companies are created through the Companies House online service, which also registers you for Corporation Tax at the same time. You can file it yourself, through a formation agent, or through your accountant.
You can file through the GOV.UK company registration service. HMRC also maintains a plain-English walkthrough on its Tax Confident site.
Online applications are usually approved within 24 hours and often the same working day. Paper filing takes eight to ten days. Same-day incorporation is available for £156 using software filing if you submit before the cut-off.
When the application is approved you receive the certificate of incorporation. It shows your company number, the date of incorporation and the Registrar seal, and it is conclusive evidence that the company legally exists. Banks ask for it when you open an account, and buyers ask for it if you ever sell. Store it where you can produce it in under a minute.
What must you do in the first 90 days after incorporation?
Creating the company is the easy part. The sequence that follows it is where new companies fall behind, because each item has its own trigger and its own deadline.
| Task | Deadline | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Register for Corporation Tax | Within 3 months of starting to trade | Buying, selling, advertising, employing or renting |
| Activate your business tax account with your UTR | HMRC issues the UTR within about 2 weeks of incorporation | Automatic after incorporation |
| Set up statutory registers | Immediately | Incorporation |
| Open a business bank account | Before you trade | The company is a separate legal entity |
| Register for PAYE | Before the first payday | Paying any salary, including your own |
| Register for VAT | Within 30 days of exceeding the threshold | Taxable turnover above £90,000 in a rolling 12 months |
| File the first confirmation statement | Within 14 days of the anniversary | One year after incorporation |
| File the first accounts | 21 months after incorporation | First accounting reference date |
Statutory registers
You must keep a register of members, a register of directors and their residential addresses, a register of people with significant control, and a register of secretaries if you have appointed one. Keep them at your registered office or at a Single Alternative Inspection Location where they can be inspected. Failure to maintain them can bring unlimited fines on the company and its officers.
The business bank account problem
Because the company is a separate legal person, its money is not your money. Mixing them is the fastest way to undermine the limited liability you incorporated for, and it makes your first year-end far more expensive to prepare.
Expect the account opening to take longer than the incorporation did. Banks run their own anti-money-laundering checks and commonly ask for the certificate of incorporation, photo identification for every director and PSC, proof of the business address and a clear description of what the business does. A SIC code that does not match your stated activity is a common reason for a rejected application, which is another reason to choose it carefully.
Once payroll starts, the employer National Insurance position matters immediately. Our Employment Allowance guide for 2026/27 explains why a sole director with no other employees cannot claim it, and the employer National Insurance calculator shows the cost of a director salary at different levels. If you are choosing software, our payroll software comparison covers the small-company options.
What are your ongoing filing duties once the company exists?
Three recurring obligations, each with a different deadline and a different recipient.
- Confirmation statement to Companies House. At least once every 12 months, confirming directors, PSCs, registered office, SIC codes, share capital and lawful purpose. £50 digitally, £110 on paper.
- Annual accounts to Companies House. Nine months after your accounting reference date for a private company, and 21 months after incorporation for the first set.
- Company Tax Return and Corporation Tax to HMRC. Corporation Tax is due nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period, and the CT600 is due 12 months after the period end. The payment deadline comes before the filing deadline, which catches people out every year.
What changes in April 2028
A package of accounts reforms was originally set for April 2027, then paused after concerns about small company privacy. On 9 June 2026 Companies House confirmed the revised position, summarised by ICAEW. From April 2028:
- All companies file accounts through commercial software. Web filing and paper routes close for accounts. Filings must be tagged in iXBRL. Web filing stays open for confirmation statements and other statutory filings.
- Small companies and micro-entities file a profit and loss account. Previously optional. The important part is that they will be able to opt out of publishing it on the public register, while Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement retain access.
- Abridged accounts disappear. The option to file a simplified balance sheet and profit and loss is removed.
- Audit exemption statements are strengthened. Companies claiming exemption must state which exemption applies and confirm they qualify.
If you incorporate now you have one full accounting year plus roughly nine months before this applies. The practical consequence for a very small company is that free web filing for accounts will end, so you will need either compliant software or an accountant who files on your behalf.
What do new company directors most often get wrong?
- Leaving identity verification until the filing deadline. A failed automated check, a passport mismatch or an incorrect date of birth on an old record turns a five minute job into a two week chase that blocks your confirmation statement.
- Forgetting the PSC 14 day rule. A shareholder who is not a director frequently does not realise verification applies to them, so the company files late through no fault of the director.
- Choosing a dormant SIC code while trading. Companies House has named this as its most common register discrepancy, and it now has the power to act on it.
- Treating incorporation as tax planning on its own. With dividend rates up and employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000, the tax case for incorporating at low profit levels is weaker than it was. Run the numbers for your situation.
- Registering for Corporation Tax late. The three month clock starts when you begin business activity, which includes advertising and buying, not when you first invoice.
- Paying dividends without distributable profits. A dividend can only come from post-tax retained profit. An unlawful dividend may have to be repaid and is often recharacterised as salary or a director loan.
- Using a home address as the registered office and then moving. The old address stays on the register, fails the appropriate address test and can trigger a default address transfer.
- Adopting model articles with two unequal founders. Model articles have no deadlock provisions, no share transfer restrictions and no reserved matters. This surfaces only when the founders disagree.
- Assuming the company name protects the brand. It does not. Only a registered trade mark does.
- Incorporating a company you do not yet need. A dormant company still owes confirmation statements and accounts every year, so an unused company is a recurring cost and a recurring deadline.
Where does professional support actually save you money?
Registering a company is something you can do yourself in an afternoon. The value of an adviser is not in the filing, it is in the decisions made around it: the share structure, the SIC code, the salary and dividend split, the VAT registration timing and the first accounting reference date. Those choices are cheap to get right at formation and expensive to unwind later.
Acenteus Accounting supports founders through UK business setup and then through the compliance cycle that follows, with accounting services for small businesses and tax advisory support. If you would rather talk it through than read another guide, get in touch.
For the year ahead, our 2026/27 tax year key dates and deadlines and year-end tax planning checklist will keep the filing calendar under control, and the management accounts guide covers what to track once the company is trading.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Digital incorporation costs £100 from 1 February 2026, up from £50. Paper registration costs £124 and same-day incorporation by software filing costs £156. The fee is set by Companies House and applies according to the date the company is actually incorporated, not the date you submit.
No. Since 18 November 2025 identity verification is mandatory for new directors and persons with significant control. You must verify and obtain a personal code before you can be appointed, either free through GOV.UK One Login or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider.
Online applications are usually approved within 24 hours and often the same working day, provided your identity verification is already complete. Paper applications take eight to ten days. Same-day incorporation is available through software filing for £156.
It depends on your profit level and how much you extract. The 2026/27 dividend rates of 10.75% and 35.75%, combined with employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000, have narrowed the advantage at lower profit levels. Incorporating remains clearly worthwhile if you retain profit, need limited liability, or want to raise investment.
It is the unique identifier issued when you complete identity verification. It is tied to you as an individual rather than to any company or role, and you use the same code for every company you are appointed to. Keep it safe, because you will need it for years.
Yes. A new PSC must supply their personal code within 14 days of registering. An existing PSC who is also a director has a 14 day window running from the confirmation statement date. An existing PSC who is not a director has a window running from the first day of their birth month as shown on the register.
Companies House has said it will not prosecute individuals during the transition period, but that is not the practical risk. An unverified director blocks the company from filing its confirmation statement, and failing to file a confirmation statement is a criminal offence that can lead to fines and strike-off.
Yes, provided it meets the appropriate address test and is in the same UK jurisdiction as your incorporation. It will appear on the public register. Many founders use a service address instead. Since 27 January 2025 you can apply to suppress a home address previously used as a registered office once you have moved.
Not on its own. Since 4 March 2024 the registered office must be an appropriate address where a delivered document would reach someone acting for the company and where delivery can be acknowledged. A PO Box alone fails that test. An agent address that meets both conditions is acceptable.
No. Directors do not need to live in the UK. The company must have a UK registered office in its jurisdiction of incorporation, and every director must still complete identity verification. Non-UK residents typically verify through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider.
You may list up to four SIC codes. Continue using SIC 2007 codes for now. SIC 2026 was published by the Office for National Statistics on 28 April 2026, but Companies House has not set a mandatory adoption date, so it is not yet the code set you file.
Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, Companies House can challenge, reject or remove misleading register information, including SIC codes. Trading under a dormant or non-trading code is the most common discrepancy. It can cause filing delays and can affect lending and grant eligibility.
For 2026/27 the small profits rate is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and the main rate is 25% on profits above £250,000, with marginal relief in between. Both thresholds are reduced if you have associated companies or a short accounting period.
You must register once taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 in any rolling 12 month period, and you have 30 days from the end of the month you exceed it. You can register voluntarily below the threshold, which lets you reclaim input VAT and is often worthwhile if you sell mainly to VAT registered businesses.
A company limited by shares has shareholders, distributes profit as dividends and is the structure for profit-making businesses. A company limited by guarantee has guarantors who each guarantee a fixed sum, commonly £1, and reinvests surpluses. It is used by non-profits, charities and community organisations. You cannot convert between them without forming a new company.
Not for a private limited company. It has been optional since the Companies Act 2006. If you do not appoint one, all statutory and administrative duties fall to the directors. Public companies must appoint a qualified secretary.
Your first accounts are due 21 months after incorporation. Your first confirmation statement is due within 14 days of the first anniversary of incorporation. After that, accounts are due nine months after your accounting reference date and the confirmation statement at least once every 12 months.
From April 2028, small companies and micro-entities will have to file a profit and loss account with Companies House, but they will be able to opt out of publishing it on the public register. Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement will still have access. The reform was moved from April 2027 to April 2028.
For now, yes. From April 2028 all accounts must be filed using commercial software and tagged in iXBRL, and the web and paper filing routes close for accounts. Web filing remains available for confirmation statements and other statutory filings.
No. Registering at Companies House only prevents another company registering the same or a very similar name. It does not stop anyone trading under that name and it gives you no protection against an existing registered trade mark. Search the Intellectual Property Office register separately.
You create a limited company online through the Companies House registration service, which also handles Corporation Tax registration in the same journey. You will need your verified identity and personal code, a company name, at least one SIC code, a registered office address, a registered email address, and the details of every director, shareholder and person with significant control. The digital fee is £100 and approval usually comes within 24 hours.
You do not convert a sole trade into a company. You create a new company and then transfer the business to it, which means agreeing the value of any goodwill, equipment and stock, moving contracts and bank arrangements across, deregistering or re-registering for VAT as appropriate, and telling HMRC that the sole trade has ceased. The tax treatment of the transfer, particularly incorporation relief on goodwill, is worth advice before you file anything.
The process is the same, with two differences. You still need a UK registered office in the jurisdiction of incorporation, so most non-resident founders use a registered address service. And because overseas identity documents often fail the automated check, you will usually verify through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider rather than GOV.UK One Login. There is no UK residency requirement for directors or shareholders.
A company trading purely on its own account is not providing a service to clients, so the professional services codes do not fit. The commonly used codes are 64999 for other financial service activities and 64209 for activities of other holding companies. If the company also carries on a separate trade, list that activity as well, up to the four code limit. Choose the code that reflects where the activity actually is, because Companies House can now challenge a code that does not match.
Yes, subject to your employment contract. Check any exclusivity, moonlighting or intellectual property clauses before you incorporate. Your directorship will appear on the public Companies House register, so treat it as visible to your employer from day one.
A dormant company still has to file a confirmation statement and dormant accounts every year, and the confirmation statement now costs £50 digitally. If you no longer need it, voluntary strike-off is cheaper than it was, at £13 digitally. Do not incorporate before you are ready to use the company.
