Registering a UK limited company in 2026 takes around 24 hours of Companies House processing time, but the decisions you make in that first hour echo for the life of the business. This guide walks through the process as we run it for clients at PushDigits, including the new identity verification requirements that took full effect under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.
Step 1: Choose the right structure
Most owner-managed businesses use a private company limited by shares. Limited by guarantee is for not-for-profits. LLPs suit professional partnerships. Public companies are rare below £25m turnover. If you are unsure, our business advisory team will pick the structure to match your funding plans and exit route, not just the cheapest option.
Step 2: Reserve a compliant company name
The name must be unique on the Companies House register, end with "Limited" or "Ltd", and avoid sensitive words (Royal, Bank, Chartered) without permission. Run three checks: the Companies House register, the Intellectual Property Office trademark database, and a domain search. Founders who skip the trademark step routinely have to rebrand within 18 months.
Step 3: Pick your SIC codes carefully
SIC codes describe what your company does. You can list up to four. They feed into bank account opening, sector statistics, and increasingly into HMRC risk scoring. Be specific: "Other business support service activities (82990)" tells nobody anything and triggers questions during onboarding. Pick the closest match for your actual revenue, plus one or two for adjacent activities you genuinely plan to enter.
Step 4: Design the share structure before you file
This is the single most common source of regret. We see founders issue 100 shares of £1 each, splitting 50/50 with a co-founder, and lock themselves out of growth shares, EMI options, family planning, and external investment for years afterwards. As a starting point we recommend:
- Higher share count (1,000 or 10,000) to allow granular percentages later.
- Low nominal value (£0.01 or £0.001) to keep future issuance affordable.
- Multiple share classes where there is a spouse, family member or future option pool.
Step 5: Appoint directors and identify PSCs
You need at least one director aged 16 or over. Every director and every Person with Significant Control (broadly, anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise exercising significant influence) must now be identity-verified.
Step 6: Verify identities under the ACSP regime
From the ECCTA rollout, identity verification is mandatory. You either verify directly with Companies House using GOV.UK One Login, or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider. PushDigits is an ACSP, which means we can verify directors and PSCs at the point of formation. Read more on our director verification page.
Step 7: Set the registered office and service addresses
The registered office must be an "appropriate address" where post is reliably received and acknowledged. Residential addresses still work but appear publicly. PO Boxes alone no longer satisfy the rules. Directors' service addresses are now separately scrutinised.
Step 8: Choose articles of association
Most founders accept the default model articles. They are workable but generic. If you have multiple founders, anticipated investment, or any class rights, draft bespoke articles at formation. Retrofitting them later requires shareholder resolutions and, sometimes, professional drafting fees that dwarf doing it right the first time.
Step 9: File the IN01 (or use Companies House Web Incorporation)
You can file directly online for £50, by post for £71, or through a software-integrated agent. The 24-hour online route is reliable provided every field is consistent: name spellings on ID must match exactly across all directors and PSCs.
Step 10: After incorporation — the first 90 days
- Register for Corporation Tax with HMRC within three months of starting to trade.
- Open a business bank account in the company name.
- Register for VAT if turnover will exceed £90,000 in any 12-month window.
- Register for PAYE if you will pay directors a salary.
- Issue share certificates and update the statutory registers.
- Diarise your first confirmation statement and accounting reference date.
The PushDigits formation engagement
We run UK company formations as a fixed-fee package combining name search, SIC selection, share structure design, ACSP identity verification, registered office service and a 12-month compliance calendar. Book a formation call and we will have your company live within 48 hours of receiving documents.