Company re­gis­tra­tion: Is it com­puls­ory?

When founding a company or starting an in­de­pend­ent activity, many people ask them­selves whether they need to be re­gistered on a kind of company register, since it’s mandatory in many countries. This, however, isn’t the case for all types of companies in the United Kingdom. The UK has had a system of company re­gis­tra­tion since 1844, but not every business needs to be on the register. For example, sole traders are exempt since they register with HMRC for ‘Self As­sess­ment’. For other companies like limited companies or limited liability part­ner­ships (LLP), they have to sign up to Companies House.

Companies House is the UK’s company register as well as being an executive agency and trading fund of Her Majesty’s Gov­ern­ment. The body in­cor­por­ates and dissolves limited companies as well as re­gis­ter­ing them and making the in­form­a­tion available to the public so anyone can look it up. The United Kingdom’s Companies Act requests that companies that qualify be re­gistered with Companies House as well as filing certain documents. The Companies Act 2016 is the le­gis­la­tion that governs company re­gis­tra­tion and provides a com­pre­hens­ive code of company law for the whole of the UK. More than 4 million limited companies are re­gistered in the UK and over 500,000 new companies are in­cor­por­ated every year.

Re­gis­ter­ing with Companies House is a re­l­at­ively straight­for­ward process, although you can pay a registrar to take care of it for you if you’d prefer, which costs around £30 although the fee can vary. The cost of re­gis­ter­ing depends on the way you send your ap­plic­a­tion. If you do it online, it costs £12, takes about 15-20 minutes to fill the forms in, and the ap­plic­a­tion will be processed within 24 hours. Re­gis­ter­ing by post sets you back £40 and takes eight to ten days. If you’re in a rush, it’s possible to be re­gistered on the same day (as long as your re­gis­tra­tion is completed online before 3pm) and this costs £100.

The in­form­a­tion you’ll need to register your company is:

• Company name
• Company address
• Names of company directors and secretary
• Memor­andum of as­so­ci­ation
• Articles of as­so­ci­ation

At least once a year, you will need to file a con­firm­a­tion statement with Companies House as well as an annual return. This statement confirms that your company’s in­form­a­tion is up-to-date. You can first search the register to see what in­form­a­tion Companies House already has on your business. Al­tern­at­ively, you can use this search to find out about any business, since everything is made public. This in­form­a­tion includes the company’s current status, when the company was in­cor­por­ated, any previous names the company had, when the con­firm­a­tion statement was last filed, etc.

If any in­form­a­tion per­tain­ing to your company is out of date, you must update your records before you file the statement or at the same time as doing so. Filing the statement costs £13, which you have to pay once a year, no matter how many state­ments you file. Filing by post costs £40.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.