Forming a Private Limited Company by Shares

A private limited company can be formed by one or more persons for any lawful purpose by registering (incorporating) the company with Companies House. At its most basic, this means signing a Memorandum of Association (in the prescribed format), completing Companies House Form IN01 and paying the registration fee. A company will also need articles of association, however unless a company wishes to have bespoke articles rather than the model articles as prescribed by the Companies Act 2006, these do not need to be sent to Companies House.

This Guidance Note contains an overview of the information that you will need to consider when setting up a company. It contains information on the following:

1. Choosing a Company Name
2. Directors
3. Subscribers & Company Secretary
4. Companies House Forms
5. Display of Company Name
6. Company Registers & Share Certificates

This template has been updated as of June 2016 to take into account that Form IN01 (application to register a company) has been updated. The main change to form IN01 is that details of people with significant control in the company on incorporation must be included. A statement of initial significant control along with details of the individuals (and relevant legal entities) must be included. This includes the nature of their control and whether any exemption applies to the information being included on the public register.

The updated Form IN01 also enables newly incorporated companies to elect to keep their registers on the public register at Companies House as well as making adjustments to the initial statement of capital in accordance with changes made by the Small Business, Enterprise & Employment Act 2015.

Further details are available on Companies House website.

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