I have looked on the HMRC website but can't find an answer to this.
Can anyone set up a limited company? I have been told that they must have traded as a sole trader or partnership and turned over £100000 in the first year before they can go limited? This sounds wrong to me as we have clients that have set up limited companies and haven't traded yet.
Is it possible for me to set up a limited company before I have even traded and if so what are the steps to do this? Don't you have to have reached the VAT threshold at least?
Anyone can set up a limited company and you can even set them up premptively but if you do and do not trade then you would need to file dormant accounts.
You can set it up through the companies house website, it's quite a painless excercise with the hardest part being to find a name that has not been grabbed previously.
Also be careful that you do not pick a name that has not been incorporated but has been trademarked.
Remember, when setting up a company Google is your freind.
Hope that helps,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks Shaun I had a feeling they were telling porkies! Do you have to pay for setting it up as limited? We have used a company called Kestrian in work which I presumed was for setting up a company and it cost around £125 for the client? Is this a completely different thing altogether?
How would I get the name and logo protected so no one else could copy it? Do you have to pay for this also and is this done through IPO? Or the national business register? At the moment it all looks like one big mess to me as I don't know where to start :/
As soon as you register a limited company that name is protected unless someone else already have it trademarked in unincorporated form.
You can do all of the forms with companies house online yourself and done online through their site rather than through third party software (which is slightly cheaper) is currently £15 to set up a company.
A trademark / logo is different to your company name and thats where the Intellectual Property office (IPO) comes into play.
Personally I've not actually sorted out the IPO side of things for any clients but it cannot be that difficult as they have in some instances sorted it out themselves. From memory I think that the IPO fee's are around £190 but don't quote me on that.
For your start point begin with the above link which has handy links.
Note that as soon as you set up the company, Companies hosue will inform HMRC who will send you a CT41G n order to put new businesses on the right track.
HMRC will also automatically set up a UTR number for the new business.
Do not however confuse that with starting the business. For that you must inform HMRC within three months of the business starting to trade that you are trading and then it all becomes real.
Hope this very brief note helps,
Good luck with the new venture Noola,
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I think that the £13 is if you set the company up through third party software rather than the Companies house site.
For £2 difference I imagine that one's going to have to start an awful lot of companies to get the software to pay for itself
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Some brilliant advice here thanks all. Its going to be online selling however I wish to sell through 4 completely different websites eventually selling 4 different product areas (they are all completely different so couldn't be lumped together in one website). I will be starting off with the first one which has little start up costs and all seems to be looking good at the minute. Am I right in thinking it would be best to set up a limited company and then trade under the 4 different styles/websites which would look like different companies to customers but at the bottom of the website it would have the limited company name?
I would need to copyright and protect the designs of my logos I have for all 4 as soon as possible because around two years ago I set up a little business from home selling personalised bags. I handmade my own logo in my handwriting and traded through facebook/twitter and was in the process of having a website set up however I then started work full time so the business was put on the back burner for a bit. I decided to use this logo/name again recently so I went online and found a website set up last year with my logo. My handwriting, my design, everything! She'd had it all protected too!
If she has used your logo and design I would speak to the IPO about it. She may have had it protected but if you have your facebook pages and can prove prior use, you should have a pretty good case against her. I would have the conversation with them and see what they say. I met one of their representatives last year and they are really helpful.
