Which Country is your Limited Company incorporated in?
Today, registering a new limited company is almost a piece of cake, with so many company formation specialists around. However, the decisions you have to take, such as deciding the county you want to be incorporated in, are not always so easy; especially when these decisions can affect your business in the long run.
When you are talking about the UK, your choices of formation include England and Wales, Northern Island, Wales or Scotland. However, simply choosing the country you are in right now is not always a good decision, since you would eventually want to expand into other countries. For example, when you decide to register your company in Wales, you will be unable to move your office or expand your business into, for example, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Since it is unlikely that you formed a company to be forever confined to a single country, it is important that you take the decision wisely.
In the UK, separate company registers exist for every country, each having their own jurisdictions. Even if you somehow managed to relocate your company to some other country, you will be denied of the critical services of that country like office addresses provider or accountancy services.
When you would consider all the possible choices, Wales stand out as the best bet, since England and Wales have the same registry. The same registry implies the same jurisdiction, so later moving to England is a simple enough affair. All you need is to fill out a form AD05 when relocating from Wales to England, or vice versa.
However, the Companies Act 2006, introduced in October 2009, maintained a single company law implemented in the entire United Kingdom. Hence, the companies would be categorized as UK companies rather than as Great Britain or North Ireland companies. This is also applicable to all UK registered companies, but excludes Northern Ireland and Scotland registered companies which still need to maintain a registered office at the location of incorporation.
Also, in case you are not sure about the country you were incorporated in, all you need is to look at the registered company number. SC stands for Scottish registered companies, while Northern Ireland is denoted by NI. However, Welsh-registered companies need to check out the Certificate of Incorporation. Certificate of Incorporation, apart from being the ultimate proof of being registered under Companies Act 2006, also provide an array of details like:
- Name of the company along with the registration number.
- Date of incorporation.
- Public/Private status
- Limited/Unlimited status, along with its nature.
- Location of company’s registered office.