If you want to register a business as a limited company in Scotland, the process is essentially identical in practice to registering a business in England and Wales.
The Edinburgh office of Companies House will be responsible for your registration, as opposed to the Cardiff or Belfast offices, but the process that you go through to submit your registration application is the same as a company south of the border.
In order to register a limited company in Scotland, you need to register with Companies House and HMRC.
Registering with Companies House
If you want to register with Companies House, you need some other piece of information first:
A company name
This sounds simple, but it is very easy to get stuck in a hole worrying about what your company name should be.
The main thing to watch out for is that you don’t go for anything similar to anyone else on the market - not only will having the same name as someone else be a problem, but going for a different spelling of the same word could also be an issue.
Look for something unique and memorable.
A registered postal address
This does not have to be the address that you trade at, but if you want to register your company in Scotland, it will need to be a Scottish address.
This address will be publically available, and it is where Companies House will send your official post.
If you are running your business out of your home, or you don’t want to use your current premises for whatever reason, you can buy one of our Edinburgh virtual addresses that you can use with Companies House.
SIC Code
The SIC Code is a 4-digit number that indicates what your company does. You will need to provide one or more of these to Companies House in your application.
Details of directors and shareholders
When you register a limited company with Companies House, you will need to provide details of at least one director and shareholder (they can be the same person).
You will also need to provide a statement of capital to provide the details of your shareholder arrangements.
Memorandum and articles of association
These legal documents tend to be fairly standard, and they form a constitution for your company which explains the share structure and the principles behind the running of your company.
Once you have collected that information, the application process can be carried out online, either through the official government site or an agent, or by post, which is more expensive. Details of these application forms can be found on the government site.
Registering with HMRC
Registering your new business with HMRC is the other essential part of the registration process. You need to register with Companies House first, and once you’ve done this, they will send you a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) which you need for the HMRC registration.
Once again, you can complete this registration <a href="https://www.mygov.scot/register-hmrc/">online, which will allow you to get up and running as quickly as possible, although postal options are available.
Other Differences
The process for registering a company in Scotland is the same as for the rest of Great Britain, but you do need to be aware that your registered company will be under Scots law, as opposed to the law of England and Wales.
In practice, this is not a significant difference, as the Companies Act of 2006 standardised much of the legal requirements of companies throughout the UK, but it is still worth bearing in mind.
published under tax-and-legislation-guides
