How to Register a Limited Company in the UK

You can register a limited company yourself, in about a day, for £100. File online with Companies House and it’s usually done within 24 hours. No accountant required.

If you also need a business account, there’s often a cheaper route: some providers register the company as part of opening one. Tide forms your company for £1 with its Company Secretary tool (£14.99 without); others refund the £100 fee if you meet their terms. We weigh both below.

One thing changed recently, and it trips people up: since November 2025 you have to verify your identity before you can be a director. We walk each step below with the current 2026 fees, then help you choose between filing yourself, using your bank, or paying an agent.

How to Register a Limited Company in the UK at a Glance

Here are the short answers to the questions people ask first. If you read nothing else on this page, we’d point you to the table, then the step-by-step below it.

How to Register a Company with Companies House

You can register your company directly with Companies House at GOV.UK, and for most people that’s the right call.

Here’s the order the steps reach you in practice, starting with the one that’s new and trips people up. Whether you’re setting up a one-person company from your kitchen table or bringing in a co-director, the sequence is the same.

Step 1: Verify Your Identity and Get Your Personal Code

Since 18 November 2025 this is the first thing to sort out, and because it’s new, it’s the step that catches people out. By law, every director and every person with significant control has to verify their identity before the company can be registered.

You can verify yourself for free through GOV.UK One Login, using the ID-check app or a set of online questions. Or an authorised agent, typically an accountant or formation agent Companies House has approved, can do it for you.

Doing it yourself is free, so don’t pay an agent just for the ID check. Pay for one only if you want them handling the rest of the setup too.

Either way you get an 11-character personal code. It’s yours for life and follows you across every company you’re involved in, so store it somewhere you’ll find it again.

Sort it before anything else. Without the code you can’t be appointed a director, and a half-finished verification is the most common reason we see an otherwise-ready application stall on the day.

Step 2: Choose and Check Your Company Name

Get the name right and most of the friction disappears. Name trouble is the single most common reason we see a straightforward application bounce.

It has to be unique: not the ‘same as’ a name on the register, and not ‘too like’ one either. Companies House ignores punctuation and filler words like ‘the’ when it compares.

‘Sensitive’ words such as ‘bank’, ‘group’ or ‘royal’ need permission and supporting evidence, so steer clear unless you can back them up.

One thing people miss: clearing a name at Companies House is not the same as owning it. Check the trade mark register and the matching domain before you commit, or you risk having to rebrand later. Our company name checker shows fast whether a name is taken.

Step 3: Choose Your Registered Office and Email

Every company needs a UK registered office in the same jurisdiction it’s registered in: England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.

Since 2024 it has to be an ‘appropriate address’, a real place where post reaches a person and can be signed for. A PO box on its own no longer qualifies.

It’s a public address, so if you run the company from your kitchen table and don’t want that on the open register, this is the one step where a formation agent or a registered-office service earns its fee.

You’ll also give a registered email address here. It’s a requirement that came in with the 2024 rules, it stays private, and Companies House uses it to reach you, so use one you’ll actually check.

Step 4: Appoint Directors, Shareholders and PSCs

You need at least one director, aged 16 or over and not disqualified or bankrupt, and at least one shareholder. In a one-person company that’s the same person wearing both hats.

Each director gives two addresses: a service address that goes on the public register, and their home address, which Companies House keeps private. Use a service address if you’d rather not publish where you live.

Then you list your people with significant control. That’s usually anyone holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, but it also catches anyone who can appoint or remove most of the board. Everyone in a director or PSC role must have verified their identity first.

Step 5: Choose Your SIC Code and Share Structure

A SIC code is a short number that describes what the company does. Pick from the official list; you can give up to four, and none of it binds what you actually trade in, so choose the closest fits rather than agonising over them.

For shares, keep it simple. Most new companies issue a small number of ordinary £1 shares split between the owners, recorded in a statement of capital. There’s rarely a reason to issue hundreds, and the model articles (Companies House’s standard rulebook) apply unless you write your own.

Step 6: Submit the Application and Pay the Fee

With the above in hand, the online form takes about 15 minutes. You’ll confirm a statement of lawful purpose, a short declaration brought in with the 2024 rules that you’re forming the company for legitimate reasons, then pay £100. Companies House usually registers the company within 24 hours.

Register online and you can normally sign up for Corporation Tax in the same flow, which saves a separate job with HMRC later. Submit before mid-afternoon and the confirmation email with your certificate of incorporation often lands by the next morning.

What You Need to Register a Company

Gather these before you start and the application is a quick job rather than a stop-start one. None of it is hard to pull together.

• A unique company name that passes the ‘same as’ and sensitive-word rules.
• A UK registered office (an ‘appropriate address’, not a PO box) and a private registered email address.
• At least one director (16+, not disqualified) with a verified identity.
• At least one shareholder (can be the same person as the director).
• Details of anyone with significant control (usually a stake above 25%).
• At least one SIC code describing what the company does.
• Your share details and a statement of capital; model articles apply by default.

Who Can Register a Company in the UK

Almost anyone can. A director has to be at least 16, and can’t be an undischarged bankrupt or a disqualified director. Beyond that, the door is open.

You don’t have to be a UK resident or citizen: non-UK residents can and do register UK limited companies. What you can’t skip is a UK registered office address, and the identity-verification step still applies to you wherever you live.

Depending on where you’re based, you might face extra identity checks, so leave a little time for that.

How Much It Costs to Register a Company

Filing yourself online costs £100. That’s the number to beat.

It’s up from the £50 many guides still quote, so treat any page showing £50 or £12 as out of date. Getting the fee wrong is the quickest way to spot a page that hasn’t been checked this year.

A cheap agent package can look like less than the £100 direct fee, because agents bundle the government fee into a wider deal. Read what’s actually included: the low headline usually leans on renewals or add-ons you may not need. That’s the catch.

How this works depends on the provider. Tide forms your company for £1 with its Company Secretary tool (£14.99 without), and ANNA charges from £19.

Zempler and Countingup have you pay the £100 fee and refund it only once you meet their terms, usually depositing or spending £100 within 30 days. Check the current offer before you rely on it.

How Long Company Registration Takes

Online, you’re usually looking at 24 hours from submitting to a registered company. The slow routes are postal and self-inflicted delays.

Most delays are self-inflicted, and we see the same handful every time: a name too close to an existing one, identity verification that isn’t finished, a registered office that doesn’t qualify, or missing PSC details. Sort those first and 24 hours is realistic.

Registering Yourself vs Using a Formation Agent

For a straightforward company, doing it yourself at GOV.UK is cheaper and takes no longer. An agent earns its fee when you want something bundled: a service address to keep your home address off the public register, or accountancy in the same step.

Worth knowing: Companies House lists agents that can file for you, but it doesn’t endorse them or stand behind their work. Use an agent for the extras you actually want, not because one is required.

For most one-person companies, that’s money you don’t need to spend. We’d file it ourselves. Put the saving towards the accountant you’ll actually want later.

In short: file direct for a simple company, bring in an agent for privacy or if you’re overseas, a bank provider to get formation and an account in one go, and an accountant only when your ownership or tax is genuinely complicated.

Should you file yourself or use an agent?

Your situation	Usually the better route
Simple one- or two-person company, home address is fine on the register	Do it yourself, direct with Companies House
You want your home address kept off the public register	Agent with a registered-office / service-address bundle
You want banking and accounting set up in the same flow	A business account provider like Tide (forms your company from £1)
You are a non-UK resident needing a UK address	Agent providing a UK registered office
You are confident and want the lowest cost	Do it yourself for £100
Verified against GOV.UK and Companies House, 6 July 2026

Do You Also Need to Register with HMRC?

Registering the company with Companies House is separate from your taxes, but the two usually connect in one flow. Here is what applies and when.

Keep this light for now. Each of these has its own rules on payroll, VAT schemes and deadlines, and our guide to starting a business covers the tax setup in more depth.

Sole Trader vs Limited Company Registration

If you’re still deciding whether to incorporate at all, here’s the default we’d give: sole trader while you’re testing, a limited company once the risk or the profit climbs. This is the short version of a bigger call.

Sole trader or limited company?

What you want	Usually the best fit
The simplest possible setup and admin	Sole trader (register with HMRC)
Legal separation between you and the business	Limited company
To look more credible to clients or lenders	Limited company
Tax planning once profits are higher	Limited company (take advice)
Low risk, low turnover, testing an idea	Sole trader
Verified against GOV.UK and Companies House, 6 July 2026

Where the two are close on tax, an accountant pays for themselves. If you lean towards staying unincorporated, our sole trader banking guide covers how that side works in practice.

What to Do After You Register a Company

The company exists the moment Companies House approves it, but a handful of jobs turn it into something you can actually trade and bank through. Work down this list in your first week or two.

• Save your certificate of incorporation and company number; you will be asked for both.
• Watch the doormat for your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), which HMRC posts within about 14 days.
• Open a business bank account: company money has to be kept separate from your own.
• Set up bookkeeping and keep every invoice, receipt and bank statement.
• Note your confirmation-statement date and your annual accounts deadline.
• Check whether your trade or your clients require business insurance before you start work.
• Register for PAYE or VAT if and when they apply to you.

Company Registration Frequently Asked Questions