How it works
What you need to register a limited company with the help of The Company Merchant UK company formation agent. Please look through this useful information before registering your company.

General Company Formation Requirements: You must have a Company name that isnt already on the register Our system checks your proposed name with Companies House automatically A UK based address is required for Companies House to send post to (if you are not a UK Resident you can use a registered office forwarding service) You need the name, address, date of birth and occupation for each involved person The town of birth, the eye colour and the mothers maiden name of each person in the company are also required. These 3 facts form a "digital signature" for Companies House to store instead of a paper signature. Thats it in a nutshell.

With that information, it takes about 10 minutes to enter the details via our automated online company formations system, another minute or so to make payment and then a few hours later you could have your limited company registered.

	Register General Commercial Companies
	Limited by Shares   If you are running a commercial business (for profit) You need at least TWO people to form a limited company either or both of these can be a director one of them will be the secretary either or both of them can own shares in the company A company has a quantity of shares called the "authorised" shares and each of these will have a value - such as £1   Shareholders dont have to own all of the authorised shares. Often a company will have 1000 authorised shares at £1 each. If a shareholder is issued 75 shares and another is issued 25 shares, the first shareholder still has a 75% stake in the company even though there are 900 unissued shares remaining   Shareholders (the owners of the company) have a limit to which their financial liability is set based on the issued shares that they own. i.e. 100 shares @ £1 mean that shareholder has a liability to pay the company £100 at some point in time, either to help start the company off, or, if being liquidated and it hasnt yet been paid up.

	Register Clubs and Associations (not for profit)
	Limited by Guarantee If you are running a club or association You need at least TWO people to form the company One of them will be the secretary Rather than being limited by the number of shares you own (because there are no shares), you subscribe to the Memorandum of Association and limit your liabilty to a predefined value should the club or association fail. MORE INFORMATION ON CLUBS/ASSOCIATIONS FORMATIONS

	Register Charities
	Limited by Guarantee Forming a charity A charity is formed in the same way as a club/association above as they are both limited companies that are limited by guarantee, however with the charity, a different set of documents are prepared, but you still need to provide the Objects of the company (what it will "do"). This varies from charity to charity Once the company is formed, you need to contact the Charities Commission and they will go through the process with you of registering your limited by guarantee company as a charity You may choose to contact the Charities Commission BEFORE you start to form a company as you may find that an existing company has the same objects as your intended company MORE INFORMATION ON CHARITY FORMATIONS