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ShelfCompanies24 has been forming UK companies for international founders since 1995. Our UK team handles every step of company formation in the UK on a single agreed service contract, from choosing the right legal form through Companies House registration, HMRC corporation-tax registration, PSC filing and your first UK bank account. UK Ltd formation is among the world’s fastest: standard online formation completes in 24 hours. Most clients are trading inside one week, or in 24 to 48 hours if they choose a ready-made off-the-shelf Ltd.
Our service covers Companies House filings, registered office, HMRC registration.
UK Ltd formation + virtual registered office + banking introduction + UK accountant under one roof.
Companies House online formation completes in 24 hours. Dedicated UK case manager.
UK formation requires no notarisation. Electronic signatures only.
We file IN01 (incorporation), draft articles, register the PSC, organise CT41G, and introduce banking and accounting.
The Ltd is the workhorse of UK commerce, accounting for the overwhelming majority of UK corporate registrations each year. Governed by the Companies Act 2006.
Required for any UK company seeking listing on the London Stock Exchange or AIM, and certain regulated sectors.
Combines partnership taxation (transparent, partners taxed individually) with limited liability. Popular with professional services firms (accountancy, law).
| Form | Min. capital | Formation time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ltd | £1 | 24 hours (online) | Default, SMEs, holdings, contracting |
| PLC | £50,000 | 1 to 2 weeks | Listed groups, capital-raising |
| LLP | No share capital | 3 to 5 working days | Professional services partnerships |
| Overseas branch | Parent-dependent | 2 to 4 weeks | Foreign multinationals with UK presence |
| Off-the-shelf Ltd | £100+ (paid) | 24 to 48 hours | Need immediate trading + history |
30-minute consultation to confirm legal form, shareholder/director structure, business activity (with UK SIC codes), registered office, share-capital level, and banking preferences.
The proposed name is checked against Companies House for distinguishability and rejection-risk (sensitive words, regulated terms). Most names clear within minutes via the Companies House WebFiling service.
For most Ltd companies the standard “Model Articles” (Schedule 1, Companies Act 2006) work well. For multi-shareholder structures with non-standard rights, drag-along, tag-along, pre-emption or share classes, we draft bespoke articles. Bilingual where requested.
The Companies House incorporation application (IN01) is filed electronically. It includes:
Companies House issues the certificate of incorporation typically within 24 hours; a same-day service is available for an additional registry fee.
Companies House informs HMRC of the new incorporation. HMRC issues a CT41G letter to the registered office within ~14 days, containing the UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) and corporation-tax notification details. The first CT600 return is due 12 months after the accounting reference date.
VAT registration is mandatory above £90,000 turnover threshold (2024); voluntary below. PAYE is mandatory once you employ anyone above £123/week. Both registered via the HMRC online portal.
UK banks have tightened KYC since 2018, many high-street banks now expect substantial UK presence or revenue. Foreign clients increasingly use challenger banks (Starling Business, Tide, Revolut Business UK, Wise Business, Allica Bank) which onboard non-resident-controlled Ltd companies more readily. We match clients to the right bank for their profile.
The company must maintain registers of members, directors, secretaries (if any), allotments, and Persons with Significant Control. We provide bound or digital statutory registers as part of the formation package.
| Scenario | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Ltd via Companies House online (standard) | 24 hours |
| Ltd via Companies House same-day service (registry surcharge) | Same business day |
| PLC | 1 to 2 weeks |
| LLP | 3 to 5 working days |
| Overseas branch | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Off-the-shelf Ltd transfer | 24 to 48 hours |
A UK formation budget has two parts: the statutory filings, whose fees are set and published by Companies House, and the professional services you choose around them. These are the line items that normally appear.
| Line item | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Companies House standard incorporation filing | Statutory registry fee, paid on submission |
| Same-day incorporation supplement | Optional registry surcharge for same business day clearance |
| Bespoke articles drafting | Only if you depart from the model articles: share classes, investor rights, transfer restrictions |
| First-year registered office | UK address for Companies House and HMRC correspondence |
| Statutory registers (digital or bound) | Members, directors and PSC registers, maintained from incorporation |
| UK accountant, micro or dormant company | Monthly bookkeeping, annual accounts and the CT600 return |
| Confirmation statement | Annual registry filing, fee set by Companies House |
Your consultant confirms the full scope in writing before you commit, so nothing on this list arrives as a surprise later.
Nothing in the Companies Act 2006 requires a shareholder or a director of a Ltd to live in the UK, hold a UK passport or have a work permit, which is why so much of our UK work is for founders who have never been here. The practical requirements are narrower than people expect: at least one director who is a natural person, a registered office address in the UK for Companies House and HMRC correspondence, and a PSC entry for anyone controlling more than 25% of the shares or votes. Tax residence is a separate question from incorporation, because a UK registered Ltd that is centrally managed and controlled abroad may be treaty resident elsewhere, and that is worth settling before you file rather than after.
The filing itself is electronic and needs no notarisation, so the paperwork you supply is a KYC pack rather than a stack of deeds: certified passport copies, proof of address for each director and person with significant control, and a short description of the intended activity with its SIC codes. Apostilles come in only where a bank or a foreign registry asks for them, and we arrange those. The stage that genuinely takes longer for a non-resident is the bank account, which is why we pre-position the application rather than sending it in cold.
The same way a UK resident does, and from your desk. You confirm the name, the directors, the shareholders and the share capital, we check the name against the Companies House index, prepare the articles and file the IN01 application electronically. Companies House normally issues the certificate of incorporation within 24 hours. You never sign in front of a notary and you never need to enter the UK, but the company does need a UK registered office address.
Registering the company at Companies House starts the tax side automatically: HMRC is notified of the incorporation and issues the CT41G letter with the company’s Unique Taxpayer Reference to the registered office, normally within about 14 days. VAT registration is separate and becomes mandatory once turnover passes the VAT threshold, voluntary below it, and PAYE registration is separate again and applies once you employ anyone.
Standard online formation at Companies House takes 24 hours, and a same business day service is available for a registry surcharge. That puts the UK among the fastest jurisdictions in the world for company registration, comparable only to Estonia with e-Residency, Singapore and Hong Kong. Being registered is not the same as being operational, though: the HMRC acknowledgement and the bank account set the real start date, normally 1 to 2 weeks in total.
£1 (one share at one penny nominal value is technically permissible). Most Ltd companies are formed with £100, £1,000 or £100,000 of share capital depending on intended use and bank-onboarding considerations.
Correct for the United Kingdom. Neither shareholders nor directors need to live in the United Kingdom or hold any particular nationality. The company does need a British registered office address, a registered email address, and at least one director who is a natural person aged 16 or over. Since 18 November 2025 every director and person with significant control must verify their identity with Companies House under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
Yes, the registered office must be a real UK address (England & Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland depending on jurisdiction selected). We provide a London or other UK city virtual registered office as part of the formation package.
19% on profits up to £50,000, 25% on profits above £250,000, with marginal relief tapering between (effective ~26.5% in the band). VAT 20% standard. No dividend withholding tax in most cases, although UK source interest and royalties carry 20% withholding unless a treaty reduces it, because the EU Interest and Royalties Directive stopped applying to UK payments made on or after 1 June 2021. R&D-intensive SMEs benefit from substantial R&D relief (up to ~27% effective benefit on qualifying spend).
A Person with Significant Control is any individual holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights in the Ltd, or who exercises significant influence/control. PSC information is filed with Companies House and made publicly accessible, a key UK transparency rule under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.
Yes. UK tax residence is determined by the place of central management and control. If your Ltd is centrally managed and controlled from abroad, it may be tax-resident there under a double-tax-treaty tie-breaker, though it remains a UK-incorporated company for Companies House purposes. We discuss tax-residence considerations during the strategy call.
HMRC corporation-tax registration (automatic via the CT41G letter, typically within 14 days), VAT registration if relevant, PAYE registration if hiring, statutory registers maintenance, bank account opening. Most clients are fully operational within 1 to 2 weeks.
Ready to register your UK Ltd? Contact our UK desk for a service covering Companies House, HMRC, registered office and banking introduction.
United Kingdom is one of several jurisdictions where ShelfCompanies24 maintains pre-formed entities and active formation services. Why pick United Kingdom for your Ltd specifically? Same-day formation, English law, global reach is the headline reason, but it pays to understand the trade-offs against the alternatives. Below are concrete differentiators that matter when you are weighing a structure decision against the actual operating profile of your business.
Cross-border corporate structuring in 2026 is governed by a tighter web of rules than in any previous decade. Three forces shape every decision:
For the United Kingdom specifically: 25% main rate, 19% small-profits rate on profits up to £50,000, and a 26.5% effective marginal rate between £50,000 and £250,000. The 25% cap is confirmed for the parliament term.
Issues we routinely see when prospects come to us after attempting the process directly with local providers in United Kingdom:
Yes. A name change is filed with the Companies House via a directors’ resolution and a routine filing, typically clears in 24 hours. We include up to one name change as standard for both shelf-company purchase and new formation.
It does, but under bilateral treaties rather than EU law. The Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the Interest and Royalties Directive stopped applying to the UK when it left the EU, so withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties flowing to or from a UK Ltd is settled by the treaty with the other country. The UK network is one of the widest in the world, and relief depends on the company being UK tax resident and on the principal purpose test.
Client information is held under contractual non-disclosure plus the professional-secrecy obligations applicable to corporate-service providers in our home jurisdiction. We do not share client identity or transaction details with third parties beyond what is statutorily required (KYC reporting, beneficial-owner-register filings, AML/CTF reporting where triggered). Our internal access to client files is logged and access-restricted by need-to-know.
Three things, on their own deadlines. A confirmation statement at Companies House, which restates the officers, the share capital and the PSC record. Annual accounts, full or abridged depending on the size of the company, also filed at Companies House. And the CT600 corporation tax return to HMRC, due twelve months after the accounting reference date. VAT returns and PAYE filings are added where the company is registered for them.
A Ltd is a separate legal entity British-tax-resident with its own corporate tax filings and beneficial-owner record. A branch is an extension of a foreign parent, the foreign parent is the legal entity, the United Kingdom branch books local-source income but the parent’s overall tax liability cascades. Most foreign owners pick a Ltd for liability ring-fencing and clean tax accounting; branches are sometimes preferred where the parent has specific group-relief or treaty considerations that depend on common legal personality.
Engaging us for your British new Ltd formation covers the following deliverables under one service:
The deliverable scope is identical regardless of whether you are based in the EU, the US, the UK, the Middle East, or APAC, we operate the same service globally for British corporate setup. Optional add-ons (virtual office, accounting retainer, payroll, sector licences, transfer-pricing documentation) are scoped separately, so the incorporation or transfer work stays exactly as agreed.