Can anyone post easy steps to set up a Limited Company?

smackdog

Hello there.

Im toying with the idea of setting up a Limited Company.

Ive looked at loads of websites and my head is going round in circles!

Went to the companieshouse website, and that was the worst of the lot!!:eek:

Can anyone post a few easy steps that would have me set up and ready to sell myself for a couple of £'s ??;)

antrobus

Yes. Find a company formation agent and get them to do it for you.

From memory Companies House charge you £20 for a DIY set up anyway.

missile

I would recommend this company > blueskyformations.co.uk

smackdog

antrobus wrote: »

Yes. Find a company formation agent and get them to do it for you.

From memory Companies House charge you £20 for a DIY set up anyway.

Cheers.

Tried blueskyformations.co.uk from the reply and they charge £14.99, which sounds cheap if companies house is £20.

Apart from opening a Business Bank Account, am I right in saying thats me got my Ltd company and Im ready to charge clients prices using my limited company and thats all I do?

Sounds far too easy, is there anything else I'd need to do, or need to know?
A dummies guide would be great if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

Ta. :beer:

chrismac1

I think you need to be careful. Setting up the company is the easy bit, with cheaper and quicker than ever online formation. The hard bit is complying with all the requirements of the Companies Act - in particular, the company's money is not your own money.

Before you get there, carefully consider exactly why you're taking this route instead of going sole trader or partnership. If it's not just you and you set up a company, get a decent shareholders' agreement in place. Hasty decisions made now could be bitterly regretted over an extended period of months or even years. I have 2 clients on my books I did my best to discourage from taking this step and they are now asking how much it costs to wind up their companies - just 12 months down the line.

Pennywise

Forming the company is the easy and cheap bit. It costs a hell of a lot more for an accountant to do the year end accounts and eventually close it down. You also have the potential of several hundred pounds of fines every year if you don't submit the accounts and returns to HMRC & Companies House on time and in precisely the right format. Most posters on here agree that whilst you can do-it-yourself for accounts & tax for a small/simple sole trader business, you really need an accountant for a limited company and that's going to cost a few hundred pounds per year at minimum. I'd advise you to talk to a couple of accountants FIRST before setting up the company to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into - most will give a free initial consultation.

missile

smackdog wrote: »

Cheers.

Tried blueskyformations.co.uk from the reply and they charge £14.99, which sounds cheap if companies house is £20.

Apart from opening a Business Bank Account, am I right in saying thats me got my Ltd company and Im ready to charge clients prices using my limited company and thats all I do?

Sounds far too easy, is there anything else I'd need to do, or need to know?
A dummies guide would be great if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

Ta. :beer:

It really is that simple. You get £35 cash back if you take the option to open a business account with Barclays bank.

As others have stated, it may be better for you to work as a sole trader. This costs you nothing and you do not need an accountant.

A search on google may explain better than our responses. http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/19/19_1/what-is-a-sole-trader.shtml

PlutoinCapricorn

"Toying with the idea" sounds rather vague.

If you are thinking about doing some non-PAYE work or having some kind of business, the first step is to make an informed decision about which legal vehicle to use. As others have said, you can be a sole trader, have a Ltd. Company, go into a partnership .. each option has advantages and disadvantages, and you need to choose the best one for you according to your circumstances, business type and scale of operation.

Many people start out as sole traders, then incorporate only if and when they bring in enough income to make this a good option.

Have you looked at www.businesslink.gov.uk? They can help a lot with free advice, information and workshops, startup etc.

GilbertGradgrind

By far and away the most useful way of company formation would be the Private Company Limited by Guarantee. The principle of formation is that you intend to carry out, by way of business, something or other. To do that you put up as little as £1 as your guarantee and find a partner to carry out business with. Which ensures things like your home and personal possessions are not at stake if the business fails.

In addition it is possible to seek to be:

Sole Trader, General Partnership, Limited Liability Partnership,, Limited Partnership, Company Limited By Shares, Public Company Limited By Shares, Private Company Limited By Shares, Private Company Limited By Guarantee, Private Unlimited Company, Unincorporated Association or Trust.

All of these have different advantages and disadvantages (you can also become a Community Interest Company - which is almost, on the way to being, a charity). The underlying problems being, "what do you intend to do as a business?" and "what do you intend to do with your surplus?"

Apart from Businesslink, The Tax People can be exceptionally helpful. Particularly around the confusing area of National Insurance. Currently, it is possible to get a £5,000 exemption from Employers National Insurance Contributions if the Business is (roughly) outside the M25 and starts this tax year. Which is a fair contribution to a start up.

"Toying with the idea" seems a little too vague. If you have not worked out what kind of business you want to run (in the sense of the organisation and the fact that the Company has a separate personality) then you really ought to consider what you want out of it first.

smackdog

Thanks very much for your replies.

The reason Im thinking about starting a limited company is on the advice of a few people who Ive been on contracts with.
I was a PAYE up until January 2010 working with an IT company. The company I worked for went into liquidation. Since then I've had numerous IT contracts and have been using an Umbrella company to process everything.

I do like the hassle free approach to an Umbrella company.
Ive been told that if I set up a Ltd company and done the contracts through that I'd miss out all the Umbrella companies fee's and would only have, as one of you guys posted, an accountants fee to pay each year.

Im trying to find out what would be best for me. I'd happily take a permanent PAYE position if one did come up with less pay, but the way things are just now permanent positions are scarce. (One interview last week had 165 applicants and I got down to the last few but no joy!)

Could I not start up a limited company so I can bypass the umbrella fees, pay an accountant to do my books, and if something permanent comes up, wind down the company if need be.
(Or can you keep a company and be a PAYE at the same time?)

Just looking for some "human touch" answers to some questions as trying to find specific answers to questions using google etc is a nightmare!!! :eek:

PS
Ive not wrote such a long spiel since skoool!!!

Cheers

chrismac1

You can have your limited company for years and years, regardless of whether you go PAYE or not. The IT field is the commonest for one-man band limited companies, I believe this is because many customers prefer to deal with limited companies. You would miss out the umbrella company fee, quite right.

You should also keep an eye out for the "son of IR35" which is due to be announced in March - the IT field has been the scene of many of the IR35 cases. The good news is that the Chair of the Professional Contractors Group is a member of the working party reporting back to the Government, so for once there is a fighting chance that some commonsense will emerge and the dafter ideas of the likes of HMRC get booted firmly back into their proper place in the bin.

If you took a long term position, you'd just file dormant company aco!!!!s. My guess is you could do these yourself, or pay an aco!!!!ant £100 or so to knock them out.