Advice on limited companies - first post!!

needsomehelp_3

Hi, This is my first post so please be gentle! I have been reading all of the great advice on here and wondered if you guys could help me.

My husband and I running a training company as a partnership, and havent decided whether to go limited yet. But when checking companies house, the name that we want to use hasnt been taken yet. Is it possible to register a company name but continue to trade as a non-limited partnership until we are ready? I hope that makes sense

Would appreciate any advice on this. Thanks!

fguk

I am pretty sure that it is possible to do what you say, but there are costs involved to register and then "shelve" the company for a period of time.

Hopefully someone with better knowledge will come along and give you a more definate answer soon.

straws

Names cannot be reserved unfortunately. As soon as you register, which costs £20 and involves a lot of form-filling (you might need a solicitor), your company is officially formed. Sorry!
If you're not ready to set up yet, you need to decide if the name you want is unusual enough to make it worth the risk of waiting for a while.
I hope that makes sense?!

WHA

You can get the company formed for about £60 through a formation agent who does most of the paperwork for you and should (if they are any good) give you instructions on the extra paperwork. You only need a solicitor if you're trying to do it all yourself instead of using a formation agent.

You will have to fill in a form to tell HMRevenue & Customs the company isn't trading, and every year you have to complete a companies house annual return (cost £30 on paper or £15 on internet) and submit dormant company accounts (pro forma on companies house website), and may have to complete a company tax return (just put zeros in all the boxes).

If you can spend a little time looking at Companies House and HMRC websites, all the information you need to know is there.

As already said, you need to think whether there is a real risk of anyone else wanting the exact same name, otherwise I wouldn't bother. And don't forget, registering a company name just stops someone else registering that same name - it doesn't protect your name from someone else using it to trade and doesn't protect your right to website domain names either.