Company Guides
How to set up and run a UK limited company. From the incorporation process, to ongoing tasks such as dealing with Companies House, and maintaining your company records.
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What are a company’s statutory registers?
All companies must keep up-to-date statutory registers and ensure they are available for inspection on request. Statutory registers include important information about the company such as the names of members and how many shares each one holds.
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What are different classes of shares used for?
Today, many companies still have just the one class of shares – ordinary shares. However, there are many different classes of shares, and even ordinary shares can have different features.
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What does limited liability mean?
In what sense do any shareholders and directors have limited liability should things go wrong with the business? What does this mean in reality, and in what circumstances might a director still be found liable?
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What is the Companies Act 2006?
The Companies Act 2006 contains more than 1,300 sections, replaces the 1985 Act. It aims to modernise company law, simplify legislation, enhance the rights of shareholders, ease the administration burden for companies, and codify the duties of company directors.
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What is share capital, and what types of share can be issued?
To get a business off the ground, it’s vital to have some cash reserves. This is where shareholders come in: by paying cash up front in return for a portion of ownership, they hope for a future higher value of the shares they now own. The cash they pay to buy ownership is known as ‘share capital’.
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What advantages does a limited company offer?
If you’re starting up a business for the first time, you can choose which business structure most suits your needs. A limited company offers liability protection for its directors and is usually most tax efficient route to take. Here we look at the advantages (and disadvantages) offered by incorporating.
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What is a shareholders’ agreement?
If you’re starting up a business for the first time, you can choose which business structure most suits your needs. A limited company offers liability protection for its directors and is usually most tax efficient route to take. Here we look at the advantages (and disadvantages) offered by incorporating.
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What is a limited liability partnership (LLP)?
A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a business model that shares some characteristics with both a limited company and a regular partnership while possessing unique features of its own.
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What is a sole trader? How to register as self-employed
In this guide, we explain what makes a person a sole trader, what sort of obligations they’ll have to carry out and how they can register with the tax authorities.
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Business structures: limited company, sole trader, partnership, LLP
If you want to start a business in the UK, you will typically work as a sole trader, as an unincorporated partnership, via your own limited company, or via an LLP. Of these business structures, the sole trader and limited company routes are the most commonly taken, for a number of reasons.
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What types of limited company are there?
A limited company is a specific type of company registration that offers investors and managers protection from liabilities incurred by the business. This is known as an incorporated structure and means the company has its own identity, responsibilities and rights in law.
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How to choose a suitable limited company name
Choosing a name for your limited company is a big deal – it is going to be the name that underpins everything you do in your business. It will carry your reputation and guarantee how memorable you are to future customers. However, there are rules you should be aware of when making your choice.