Requirements for registering a company in the United Kingdom
A company can be formed in the UK by anyone, although directors must be over 16 years of age. To form a UK registered company limited by shares, you will need the following:
- A Registered Office in the UK. We provide a London address
- 1 shareholder and 1 director. They can be the same person
- Issued share capital: This can be as little as £1.
There can be more directors and shareholders, and there is no limit to the number of shares that can be issued.
Directors and Shareholders
- Directors and Shareholders can be corporate i.e. another limited company can be appointed as a director.
- A company must have at least 1 natural person as a director so; there must be at least 1 named individual acting as a director.
- There is no requirement for directors and shareholders to be UK resident
Exploring the general procedures of opening an offshore account will help you run your business trouble-free.
VAT registration for companies controlled by non-UK residents
As a non-resident owner of a UK company, you may find it difficult to register for VAT if you don’t have proper trading premises in the UK. HMRC does not consider a Registered Office or business/ virtual mail address as a business establishment. Notwithstanding your UK registration, your company will be classified as a “non-established taxable person”.
Identification documents and Money Laundering Regulations
Although we do not require documents at the time an order is placed, anyone using our registered office service will be asked to supply identification documents once the service has been set up. We will need 1 document providing proof of name; passport or drivers licence etc. and 1 document providing proof of address; utility bill etc. In some circumstances, we will ask you to have the documents notarised.
Apostille
The U.K. is party to the Hague Convention and can issue Apostilled documents that will be accepted in the other 100+ countries that are signed up to the agreement. An Apostille certificate is issued by the U.K.s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCOH) and states that a document is authentic. Not all documents can be apostilled;
Some may first need to be legalised. If you wish a document to be Apostilled, you can order the service at our checkout when you place an order.
Certificate of Incumbency
Our non-resident clients sometimes ask us to arrange the issue of a Certificate of Incumbency. However, UK Government agencies do not officially recognise the term or issue a document by this name. It is, of course, possible to create such a document and have it notarised, but it will not be issued by a government agency. The nearest alternative is a Certificate of Good Standing.
