Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to register a company in the UK

swombat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#41

Post by jmaskell »

"As part of the company registration process, you might be tempted to come up with a lofty valuation for your shares. Don't. You'll only cause yourself hassle. Create 100 shares of £1 each and assign 1 share to each equal cofounder. You can change those numbers to reflect however you decided to set up the company. If you want to implement vesting, close this web page and get in touch with a solicitor."

This isn't the case if you register through Companies House - you have to allocate all share capital.

I found this out when using their online registration service recently - according to my accountant it's a change from the Companies Act 2006.

The Companies House registration service is definitely worth using - you'll probably get your company set up within an hour or two of filing the form. Unless you have a complicated shareholder agreement (in which case you really should get yourself a good lawyer if you don't already have one) the default Articles of Association will be fine for you.

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#42

Post by StavrosK »

dejv wrote: post #39
jrmg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, why did you decide to create a UK company rather than a Greek one - or one in another country for that matter?

I don't know anything about Greece, but speaking of my country of origin (Czech Republic) is quite a big problem to set up credit card payments, not speaking about much bigger administrative burden and costly process of setting up company.

As zerostar07 said, the bureaucracy alone makes it a nonstarter. In the UK I get my personal HMRC contact, whereas in Greece you have to get up at 7 am and only hope you will get whatever you want done that day.

Also, Greece doesn't generally encourage entrepreneurship that much. For example, I can't email an invoice, I have to actually mail the actual physical copy, which I have to write by hand, because I have a book of invoices stamped by the Eforia (the Greek revenue service).

Plus, setting up the UK company took 15 minutes and as many pounds, whereas I have no idea how much it costs in Greece. Friends who've done it told me to stay away.

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#43

Post by jmaskell »

andyking wrote: post #17

I'm not looking to set myself up as a company, but just out of interest, what's the difference between registering yourself and buying an off-the-shelf limited company? I've known people do it both ways. If getting yourself registered as a brand new company is so easy, what are the advantages of buying an empty limited company and changing its name? There must be some, or people wouldn't do it.

There are two main advantages to buying an off the shelf company:

1. Having a company that appears to have been around for longer than it actually has (although it's pretty easy to find out it's history - e.g. when directors changed).

2. Getting the company name that you want. There are a number of people that form companies and register them as dormant just to squat on the name - just like people do with domain names.

Edit: forgot to add:

I'd recommend registering a fresh company. It's quick and easy. Buying a company, changing directors, making sure there's no awful legal history with it etc probably isn't worth the extra cost or effort. It's nice to have a clean slate to start with.

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#44

Post by StavrosK »

jamii wrote: post #27
amouat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you choose an accountant? That's the problem I'm currently facing. Actually, that would make a good swombat article...

I went to a friend of a friend who specialises in small businesses. I suppose asking for recommendations on HN might also work.

If anyone knows a good (well, more cheap than good) accountant, I would love a reference. My company only makes a few thousand pounds a year, so it shouldn't be too much work...

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#45

Post by mseebach »

jrmg wrote: post #37
StavrosK wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Greek citizen with a UK company, I created it in ten minutes on companiesmadesimple.com, who also provide mail forwarding services, if I recall correctly. The biggest pain is the accounting, but FreeAgent (the app referred from the article) sounds good, and I guess 300 GBP a year isn't too much for it.

Out of interest, why did you decide to create a UK company rather than a Greek one - or one in another country for that matter?

Besides the stated reason, I'd assume having your contracts denominated in pounds isn't the worst idea for a Greek businessman in this day and age.

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#47

Post by mseebach »

zerostar07 wrote: post #25

How is the UK better compared to other competitive EU jurisdictions like Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus?

I've heard somewhere that the UK limited company is the easiest and cheapest (also in terms of capital requirements) available. In Denmark, the capital requirements for a limited company is £14,000, although setting up as a sole trader is extremely simple and completely free.

It also have the advantage over Luxembourg and Cyprus that English is the official language. And finally, it's probably worth mentioning that swombat is living in the UK.

Re: How to register a company in the UK

#50

Post by AdamGibbins »

xxqs wrote: post #49

here I covered similar topics for Switzerland, if someone is interested. http://www.swinog.ch/meetings/swinog20/p/Swinog20_Starting_a... In general, the Swiss company registration is a bit more expensive, and there are certain obligations.

You recommend GoDaddy? :)
Post reply on HN