A new company? Start-here

: Last Updated: 19 January 2022

This 'At a glance' freeview guide is essential reading for anyone thinking about starting up a new company.

If you are starting a new business and you want to consider other types of trading vehicle, check out A new business? Start here.

If your company is already up and running, check out An existing company? Start here...

Setting up the company

So you have decided upon a corporate vehicle, but how do you set it up? What are different share classes for? What reliefs are available for my investors?

Article & Link	What you get
How to start a company	How to form (incorporate) a private limited company and the points you need to consider.
Issuing shares	How to issue new shares in a company together with a summary of some of the pitfalls if an issue fails to qualify for tax purposes.
Share capital: what's an ordinary share?	It sounds like daft detailing: however, set up the wrong type of share classes and you may lose all your tax reliefs.
Share certificate	A template for creating share certificates.
Shareholder Agreement	A basic template listing some of the key points that shareholders may wish to agree on.
Setting up different share classes: family companies	Sometimes founders and owners may create special share classes for themselves. This guide explores the issues, pitfalls and planning points.
Director's Service Contracts	Top tips on creating a written service contract as required by the Companies Act 2006.
New director registration forms	To register with Companies House and with HMRC.
Which relief: IR v BADR v SEIS v EIS	You are bringing in shareholders and investors, what reliefs may be open to them and who qualifies: Links to detailed guides on each of the key reliefs available to UK investors. Link to Business Investment Relief guide for overseas investors.
Which investment relief? IR, BADR, SEIS or EIS	Still unsure which investor relief works best? Here is a cmparison. What is the difference between Business Asset Disposal Relief 'BADR' (formerly Entrepreneurs' Relief) and Investors' Relief? How do they compare to investments in the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)?
Employee share schemes	Start here if you are thinking of issuing shares or share options to any new, existing or potential directors/employees.
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI)	EMI is a tax incentivised share option scheme: it may be a simpler and more cost-efficient alternative to directly issuing shares to directors and employees.
Setting up share classes: directors and employees	Companies often create special classes of share to attract and reward directors and employees: this guide covers the key basics.

Tax compliance

Once the company is incorporated, the company needs to be registered for tax.

New companies: Tax registration checklist	The company is now set up. What registrations are needed? With whom and for what?
Companies: trading, non-trading and accounting periods	This guide will explain when the company is treated as having started to trade for tax purposes. When will the accounting period run to? What filing responsibilities do I have?
Company tax references and details	This is a practical record of the various tax references (& others) and accompanying details that you will need for compliance purposes once your company has been set up.
Compliance review: Returns, filing & payments	This handy guide details the various returns that a company may be required to submit depending on the nature of the business. Included are the filing deadlines and penalties for non-compliance.
Corporate Anti-Tax Evasion Policy Template	S.44 - s.52 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 lays out the corporate criminal offences of facilitating tax evasion. As part of the qualifying defence to such a charge, HMRC expects all corporate entities to have an Anti-Tax Evasion policy in place.