Private Ltd Company and Companies house - privacy questions

uknick

penguineater said:

uknick said:

penguineater said:

greatkingrat said:

You have to give an address at which you can be contacted, that does not necessary need to be your home address. I expect most "celebrities" would use their agent/accountant as a forwarding address.

Oh that's interesting - I suppose it still has to be your real name? Is it necessary for all private ltd companies on companies house to display income regardless of how much or little and also how many or few employees/owners?

If your company sales are less than £10.2m and you employ less than 50 employees (there are balance sheet conditions which I assume won't affect you) you don't have to submit full accounts to Companies House.  They just get the balance sheet along with the notes to the accounts.  In addition to this, even a full P&L won't tell a reader how much each person earns, just Company total income.  You could get make a guess at dividends paid out based on reserve movements but there are many factors which could make it an unreliable estimate.  Plus, you won't know who got what dividends as share holdings for private limited companies aren't generally available.

Thanks for that info. I think I am set on not wanting to have my personal information public at all - I guess to get the full answers to my questions i'll have to find a reputable accountant that deals with such things. This kind of stuff doesn't seem to be very commonly spoken about on forums.

Sorry, but if you want to go Limited in the UK and be a director you've no choice but to have some information in the public domain. We have this query quite often from clients and have to explain that, whilst a company has the veil of incorporation around it i.e. the company is legally separate from its directors and owners, directors names are available at Companies House.  There is a very good reason for this;  fly by night crooked directors who set up a Ltd, take money from customers, then go bust after taking the cash. They then set up another Ltd and do the same thing.  I have used the information at Companies House to check directors of companies to see if they have this pattern of behaviour.

It is possible to have a corporate director where a company act as director, something the legislators are trying to remove, but you then will be named at this company, unless you have another corporate director for this one etc., like Russian dolls.  But, eventually they'll find you if they really want to.

penguineater

uknick said:

penguineater said:

uknick said:

penguineater said:

greatkingrat said:

You have to give an address at which you can be contacted, that does not necessary need to be your home address. I expect most "celebrities" would use their agent/accountant as a forwarding address.

Oh that's interesting - I suppose it still has to be your real name? Is it necessary for all private ltd companies on companies house to display income regardless of how much or little and also how many or few employees/owners?

If your company sales are less than £10.2m and you employ less than 50 employees (there are balance sheet conditions which I assume won't affect you) you don't have to submit full accounts to Companies House.  They just get the balance sheet along with the notes to the accounts.  In addition to this, even a full P&L won't tell a reader how much each person earns, just Company total income.  You could get make a guess at dividends paid out based on reserve movements but there are many factors which could make it an unreliable estimate.  Plus, you won't know who got what dividends as share holdings for private limited companies aren't generally available.

Thanks for that info. I think I am set on not wanting to have my personal information public at all - I guess to get the full answers to my questions i'll have to find a reputable accountant that deals with such things. This kind of stuff doesn't seem to be very commonly spoken about on forums.

Sorry, but if you want to go Limited in the UK and be a director you've no choice but to have some information in the public domain. We have this query quite often from clients and have to explain that, whilst a company has the veil of incorporation around it i.e. the company is legally separate from its directors and owners, directors names are available at Companies House.  There is a very good reason for this;  fly by night crooked directors who set up a Ltd, take money from customers, then go bust after taking the cash. They then set up another Ltd and do the same thing.  I have used the information at Companies House to check directors of companies to see if they have this pattern of behaviour.

It is possible to have a corporate director where a company act as director, something the legislators are trying to remove, but you then will be named at this company, unless you have another corporate director for this one etc., like Russian dolls.  But, eventually they'll find you if they really want to.

I understand - I don't have issue with the government knowing that I own the ltd, it's just privacy relating to what the public can access and doxing.

It's a bit of an annoying situation i'm in..

Remain sole trader and maintain privacy

Go private ltd, lose privacy but gain tax/ltd perks / more money

The only other option is to just take my company offshore and not be on companies house? Not really sure how that works with living in the UK and paying tax etc - but then I can't take advantage of any uk ltd company perks such as benefit-in-kind (company car) or do those have similar advantages?

So much research to do!

Jeremy535897

If your company is managed and controlled in the UK it is resident here, and subject to UK tax. Even if it weren't, if its business is in the UK it will pay UK tax. It might well be a Cayman Islands company, but that won't change these facts. Indeed, there are various anti avoidance provisions that can result in an offshore company's profits being taxed directly on the transferor of assets to it.

Pennywise

penguineater said:

uknick said:

penguineater said:

uknick said:

penguineater said:

greatkingrat said:

You have to give an address at which you can be contacted, that does not necessary need to be your home address. I expect most "celebrities" would use their agent/accountant as a forwarding address.

Oh that's interesting - I suppose it still has to be your real name? Is it necessary for all private ltd companies on companies house to display income regardless of how much or little and also how many or few employees/owners?

If your company sales are less than £10.2m and you employ less than 50 employees (there are balance sheet conditions which I assume won't affect you) you don't have to submit full accounts to Companies House.  They just get the balance sheet along with the notes to the accounts.  In addition to this, even a full P&L won't tell a reader how much each person earns, just Company total income.  You could get make a guess at dividends paid out based on reserve movements but there are many factors which could make it an unreliable estimate.  Plus, you won't know who got what dividends as share holdings for private limited companies aren't generally available.

Thanks for that info. I think I am set on not wanting to have my personal information public at all - I guess to get the full answers to my questions i'll have to find a reputable accountant that deals with such things. This kind of stuff doesn't seem to be very commonly spoken about on forums.

Sorry, but if you want to go Limited in the UK and be a director you've no choice but to have some information in the public domain. We have this query quite often from clients and have to explain that, whilst a company has the veil of incorporation around it i.e. the company is legally separate from its directors and owners, directors names are available at Companies House.  There is a very good reason for this;  fly by night crooked directors who set up a Ltd, take money from customers, then go bust after taking the cash. They then set up another Ltd and do the same thing.  I have used the information at Companies House to check directors of companies to see if they have this pattern of behaviour.

It is possible to have a corporate director where a company act as director, something the legislators are trying to remove, but you then will be named at this company, unless you have another corporate director for this one etc., like Russian dolls.  But, eventually they'll find you if they really want to.

Remain sole trader and maintain privacy

You don't have privacy as a sole trader.  You should be providing customers with your own name and service address, as required by law.